Activity on the financial markets during the Coronavirus crisis has been marked by global distortions and huge volatility. At Boerse Stuttgart, this extreme market environment is accompanied by a strong increase in orders: on days of particularly intensive trading in March, more than 80,000 orders were executed across all asset classes – more than four times as many as the previous year’s average.
“Boerse Stuttgart’s trading systems are coping with the current high load without notable failures or disruptions. That applies to all asset classes”, said Dragan Radanovic, Member of the Management Board at Boerse Stuttgart GmbH with responsibility for Markets and Exchange Operations. For instance, up to 8,3 billion issuer quote updates per day were processed for securitised derivatives – twice as many as the normal average. In Boerse Stuttgart’s hybrid market model, trading experts ensure the highest possible trading quality and provide additional liquidity when needed. “In times of crisis and in volatile market phases, we offer retail investors reliable and fair trading conditions with prices in line with the market”, said Radanovic.
Boerse Stuttgart has taken extensive measures to ensure the reliability and availability of the trading venue in the current situation. Oliver Hans, Managing Director of Baden-Württembergische Wertpapierbörse GmbH, said: “We will continue to take all technical and organisational action necessary to keep our exchange open even if the circumstances deteriorate further.” Oliver Hans is also a Member of the Board of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE), whose position in the current situation is supported by Boerse Stuttgart. “As regulated trading venues, European exchanges should remain open in order to ensure reliability, integrity and fairness in a transparent way”, said Hans.
Order book turnover increases significantly in March
Based on the order book statistics, Boerse Stuttgart generated turnover of around EUR 15 billion in March 2020. Compared to the previous month this is an increase of around 44 per cent and the highest level since October 2008.
Securitised derivatives made up the largest share of the turnover. The trading volume in this asset class was over EUR 5,9 billion – around 39 per cent more than in February und the highest level since August 2011. Leverage products generated around EUR 4,3 billion – an increase of 62 per cent compared to the previous month. Investment products contributed over EUR 1,6 billion to the total turnover.
According to the order book, trading in equities produced turnover of around EUR 3,4 billion – around 46 per cent more than in February and the highest level ever. German equities contributed over EUR 2,1 billion towards this total and international equities over EUR 1,2 billion.
Turnover shown in the order book from exchange-traded products (ETPs) was around EUR 3,7 billion – an increase of around 58 per cent compared to February and the highest level ever. Investment fund units contributed around EUR 337 million to the March total.
The monthly total for trading in debt instruments (bonds) was around EUR 1,7 billion – an increase of around 33 per cent compared to the previous month. At EUR 691 million, the lion’s share of turnover in this asset class was attributable to corporate bonds.