Eurex Posts Third-Best Monthly Total To Date – 41.9 Million Contracts Traded - Record Volumes In

Eurex, the international derivatives market, posted its third-highest volume on a monthly basis in September with 41.9 million contracts traded. This is an increase of 17 percent over the number traded in September 1999. Some 344 million contracts have already been traded during the first three quarters of the current year, about one-fourth more than the total for the same period of last year.

Trading in the capital market products was extremely successful again in September. Outstanding results were achieved in derivatives on short- and medium-term federal bonds. A new record was set in futures on the Schatz, with about 4.9 million contracts traded, after 4.4 million in May 2000. In options on the Schatz , some 230,000 contracts changed hands, the second-best monthly total in this product to date and more than six times the number traded one year ago. The Bund future, as the world's most heavily traded futures contract in September, maintained its benchmark position for long-term interest-rate futures transactions, with 13.5 million contracts traded.

The index products again showed very good results with some 7.7 million contracts traded. The derivatives on the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50 made a major contribution to this performance. The futures contract on the European benchmark index posted record results in June with volume of 1.7 million contracts traded; the highest monthly total to date was achieved in March 2000 with contract volume of 1.4 million. Trading in the futures contract was about 120 percent higher compared with September 1999. The newly introduced derivatives on the Nemax 50 index are on an extremely favorable trend: In the fourth month of trading, volume was already up to about 150,000 contracts, after some 12,000 contracts in June, 45,000 in July and 94,000 in August.

Eurex also showed outstanding results in the stock options, with roughly 7.6 million contracts traded, its second-highest monthly total to date and 38 percent over the September 1999 volume. The option on Nokia also set another new record in September, with over 495,000 contracts traded in the option, beating the previous record set in August (334,000 contracts) by 48 percent. New record volume was also posted on a monthly basis in the option on Sonera with more than 45,000 contracts traded.