KOFEX Posts 2.59 Trillion Contracts In Total 2004 Annual Volume

The Korea Futures Exchange (KOFEX), the largest world futures exchange, posted total 2004 annual volume of 2,586,818,602 contracts. KOFEX average daily volume in 2004 was 10,388,677 contracts, down 11.9 percent from 11,792,881 contracts in 2003.

KOSPI200 futures and options saw a breakaway of individual investors due to lower volatility. Korean Treasury Bond (KTB) futures also experienced a volume decrease, which was due to poor hedge demands resulting from the downward stabilization of interest rates. However, US dollar futures expanded due to an increase of institutions' longer-term hedge demands and high volatility of the underlying exchange rate during the 4th quarter of 2004.

Average Daily Trading Volume and Value

	2004 (Contracts)	2003 (Contracts)	% Change	Trading Value (Trillion Won) *
KOSPI200 Futures	223,329	251,841	-11.3	11,961.9
KOSPI200 Options	10,126,736	11,488,765	-11.9	581.1
KTB Futures	29,409	41,472	-29.1	3,252.1
US dollar Futures	8,361	6,073	37.7	478.2
Total	10,388,677	11,792,881	-11.9	16,275.4

^* Nominal value is used for futures contracts and premium for options contracts.