French Derivatives Market: Turnover Up 16.5% In November

Contract turnover on ParisBourse SBF SA derivatives markets reached 17,417,794 in November, up 16.5% compared with October. This is close to the total of 18 million contracts traded in September, the markets' second-best month this year. Since the beginning of 1999, more than 170 million derivatives contracts (173,679,408) have been traded on ParisBourse SBF SA's markets. Transaction volume in index and equity derivatives increased 17.1% month-on-month in November, with 17,163,157 lots traded, and open interest grew by 18.9% to 27,501,710 lots. Premium turnover rose 47.9% compared with October. In the option markets, November saw sustained trading on the back of record-breaking activity in the equity markets. A total of 9,426,914 contracts were traded on the CAC 40 option (up 21.4% on October), while volume in short-term and long-term equity options reached 5,966,772 lots. The five most heavily traded contracts were Carrefour, France Telecom, Totalfina, Alcatel and Vivendi. Transaction volume in the CAC 40 future contracted 10.5%, with a daily average of 78,933 contracts. Average daily volume in the Euro DJ STOXXSM50 future reached 1,002 contracts, almost two times October's figure of 595. Interest rate futures recorded transaction volume of 244,272 contracts, down 11.3% on last month. Open interest contracted by 9.4%. In commodity derivatives, overall volume was down 45.6% compared with October while open interest rose 4.5% to 18,902 contracts.