Eurex Volume in August Almost Even with Total for 1998 - 245 Million Contracts Traded

Eurex, the German-Swiss derivatives exchange, is posting further increases in trading: Over 32 million contracts were traded on the world's largest derivatives market in August. Compared with the same month of last year, Eurex statistics show an increase in volume of about 5 million contracts. Over 245 million contracts were traded during the first eight months of 1999, an in-crease of 86 million contracts over the number traded during the same period of 1998. Thus, by the end of August 1999, the derivatives market has almost matched the total volume recorded for all of 1998 (248 million contracts). On a monthly basis, the BUND future was the No. 1 product at Eurex, with about 12 million contracts traded, roughly seven percent higher than in August 1998. Based on these figures, the BUND future is still the world's most heavily traded futures contract. Trading in options on the BUND future was also extremely active in August, with 2.2 million contracts traded, over 100 percent more than in August 1998. Trading volume in futures on the BOBL and SCHATZ was high in August. A total of 5 million contracts changed hands in the BOBL future, about 48 percent higher than the number traded during the same month of last year. The SCHATZ future posted its second-best monthly per-formance in August with over 2 million contracts traded. This is 66 percent higher than the number traded in the same month of last year. The favorable trend in trading on the Dow Jones Euro-STOXX 50 at Eurex is continuing. The derivatives market shows turnover of 700,000 contracts in the futures and options for August 1999, another increase and 7 percent higher than the July 1999 figure. The average daily volume in futures and options traded on this product was already at about 32,000 contracts in August.