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Boerse Stuttgart marked the end of trading for 2011 with its traditional year-end event on 30 December. Representatives of the stock exchange were joined by around a hundred guests from business, politics and society to take stock of the year. Christoph Lammersdorf, CEO of Boerse Stuttgart Holding GmbH, looked back on an eventful year marked not only by the stock exchange’s 150th anniversary but also by political crises and turbulence on the financial markets.
Striking an upbeat note in his review of trading in 2011, Christoph Lammersdorf observed that “Even during periods of market turbulence, investors in Stuttgart were able to rely on their orders being executed quickly and efficiently.” He argued that while many stock exchanges had lost sight of the interests of their retail investors as a result of radical and ongoing changes in the modern trading environment, at Boerse Stuttgart success was largely driven by tailoring offers and services to the needs of retail investors and by prioritising innovation. Citing one such innovation, he noted that “Bondm has established Boerse Stuttgart not only as a pioneer of a concept that has now been adopted by other stock exchanges but also as a market leader.”
According to the provisional order book figures (including an estimate for the last two trading days of December), aggregate turnover at Boerse Stuttgart in 2011 was around EUR 109 billion, approximately 16 percent up on the previous year. Securitised derivatives accounted for over half of this total at almost EUR 57 billion, a year-on-year increase of around 14 percent, reinforcing Boerse Stuttgart’s position as Europe’s leading market player in the trading of securitised derivatives. Boerse Stuttgart also occupies Germany’s top slot in the stock-exchange trading of corporate bonds. This category generated turnover of over EUR 13 billion, accounting for almost half of the entire volume of bonds traded at the Stuttgart Stock Exchange. The list of other classes that recorded significant increases in trading volume includes investment funds, with exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in particular ending the year up nearly 36 percent at over EUR 7.8 billion.
As well as its focus on trading, Boerse Stuttgart places great importance on education. In the words of Christoph Lammersdorf, “Education and the stock exchange belong together. When it comes to financial issues, the task of imparting knowledge is one that demands responsibility, and it is one that we have again taken very seriously over the last year.” In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in the Federal State of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Boerse Stuttgart developed a number of specialised stock market and financial training modules that it made available to various schools for the first time in October. It also provides a wealth of information on its website and offers numerous in-house training events.
In 2011, as part of its wider social commitment, Boerse Stuttgart supported the grammar school Evangelisches Lichtenstern Gymnasium in Sachsenheim, Germany, the project Mitmachen Ehrensache and a charitable campaign launched with the help of the Herzenssache society. It donated EUR 25,000 to Herzenssache as part of the campaign and made its staff available to provide 200 hours of unpaid teaching at the Albertville and Lessing schools in Winnenden, Germany. “As a stock exchange, not only do we see ourselves as a trading centre and an employer; we also take our social responsibility in the region very seriously,” emphasised Christoph Lammersdorf.
