IDEM Market: New Trading Record On Stock Options Segment

January 2006 has seen the IDEM market register a new trading record. With a daily average of 63,000 standard contracts, volumes in single stock options were up 20% on January 2005, making it the busiest month ever for the product. This strong increase is attributable to the higher demand from international investors and the increased availability of options to private investors through online trading platforms. Moreover, the further fee discounts applicable to large sized deals on stock options, introduced by Borsa Italiana since January 1st, 2006, have contributed to the volumes growth.

The overall performance of the IDEM was also strong. The market traded over 2 million contracts, corresponding to a notional value of €78bn. Average daily volumes were about 93,200 contracts, up 19% compared to January 2005. The open interest has reached 2.39 million contracts, up 19% compared to January 2005.

Besides stock options, all other IDEM products delivered a good performance in terms of traded volumes. Compared to January 2005, index futures were up 8% with a daily average of 12,000 standard contracts, index minifutures were up 25% with a daily average of 5,600 standard contracts, index options were up 28% with a daily average of 10,300 standard contracts and stock futures were up 1% with a daily average of 2,000 standard contracts.