Eurex Turns Over 102 Million Contracts In January and February - Second-Highest Turnover On Monthly Basis: Over 48.9 Million Contracts In February - New Record Results In Options On Nokia, Philips And Dow Jones Euro-STOXX

In February, Eurex, the international derivatives market, posted its second-highest monthly volume to date: With 48.9 million contracts traded, the world market leader again surpassed all expectations, even in the short month of February. Compared with February 2000, Eurex volume for the month grew by more than 25 percent. Eurex is thus continuing into the new year on the extremely positive trend in trading volume set in January: More than 100 million contracts have already changed hands at the exchange during the first two months of trading this year.

In trading of capital market products, Eurex achieved very good results in several products: Bund future volume, with some 15.2 million contracts traded in February, was 10 percent higher than the year before. The Bobl future, with over 8 million contracts traded, posted its second-best monthly total to date (after 8.9 million contracts in January 2001) and surpassed the February 2000 figure by 38 percent. The Schatz future also achieved its second-highest monthly volume to date with more than 5.8 million contracts traded (after 7.8 million in January 2001).

In the stock options, Eurex set a new record with 10.3 million contracts traded in February (previous record: 10.2 million in January 2001). This put the trading volume in equity options 48 percent ahead of the total posted for February last year and well within the trend of further increases in turnover of these products. Of the international stock options, the option on Nokia set a new record with over 1 million contracts traded (previous record: 886,000 in January 2001). Eurex tripled its turnover in this product against the February 2000 figure; this makes Nokia the third-strongest stock option at Eurex, after the option on Deutsche Telekom and the option on Siemens, but ahead of the option on Credit Suisse Group (some 885,000 contracts traded) and the option on UBS (some 637,000 contracts traded). Outstanding results were also achieved by the option on Sonera with 63,000 contracts traded (its second-highest monthly total to date) and the option on Philips with 37,000 contracts traded, a new monthly record. Eurex is continuing to expand its position as the leading platform for European equity options with a steady line of successes.

A very good result was also achieved in the index products with some 7.1 million contracts traded. This was especially due to the derivatives on the DAX and the Dow Jones Euro-STOXX 50, with volume of some 3.7 million and 2.6 million contracts traded, respectively. A new record was set in options on the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50 with more than 1 million contracts traded (previous record: 990,000 contracts in October 2000), 80 percent higher than the number traded in February last year. The turnover in futures on the Dow Jones Euro STOXX increased 115 percent over the February 2000 volume.