Eurex Sets New World Record - Record Turnover Of 1.07 Billion Contracts In 2004 - French And Dutch Equity Option Segments Record Strong Growth - US-Participants Now Account For Around 30 Percent Of Total Turnover

The international derivatives market Eurex set a new world record in 2004. The preliminary figures, which include a forecast for the last eight trading days of this year, show that Eurex generated turnover of 1.07 billion contracts in 2004, once again setting a new world record (2003: 1.014 billion contracts). This means that Eurex will close out this year too as by far the world's largest and most successful derivatives market.

Open interest on Eurex also hit a new record of around 85 million contracts. Open interest refers to the number of open positions in a future or options contract and is considered to be a key indicator of a derivatives market's potential for sustainable future growth.

The highest turnover for the year was once again delivered by Capital Market Products, which accounted for approximately 578 million contracts. The Euro BUND future accounted for around 240 million of these contracts. The second-best performer was the Index Products segment, where annual turnover exceeded 280 million contracts. 122 million contracts were traded in the DJ-Euro-STOXX 50 future this year.

Equity options saw particularly strong growth with turnover at around 212 million contracts. With a market share of 20 percent of all Dutch, and around 17 percent of all French equity options, Eurex further enhanced its position as the most liquid market for trading in European equity and equity index options.

Eurex was particularly successful in the USA in 2004. The contribution made by US-participants to total turnover increased to 30 percent in benchmark products such as the Euro BUND future, the DAX future and the Euro STOXX 50 future. Around 6.3 million contracts were traded on Eurex US, Eurex's US subsidiary, in 2004. Trading on Eurex US opened for the first time on February 8 this year.