Eurex World's Largest In Nokia Options Launches New Finnish Stock Options

On January 24, the European derivatives market Eurex launched eight new stock options on Finnish equities: StoraEnso, TietoEnator, Helsinki Telephone, Sampo Insurance, Metso, Metsä-Serla, Fortum and Huhtamäki van Leer have been added to the selection of Nordic stock options available for trading, which already included Nokia, UPM and Sonera. The listing of Finnish products is a result of the cooperation finalized between Eurex and HEX last year. Stock options and index products on Finnish and Nordic stocks have been traded at Eurex since September. In particular, the option on Nokia is showing a steady rise in trading volume and open interest. Whereas about 14,000 contracts were traded in October 1999, turnover increased to some 22,000 contracts in December. After 15 days of trading in January, about 30,000 contracts have already been traded, which corresponds to an average daily volume of some 1,700 contracts traded. The most recent figures show open interest of about 40,000 contracts. Last week the traded volumes in Nokia at Eurex the first time overtook Nokia volumes traded at OM Stockholm.