LIFFE Trades £31 Trillion Worth Of Contracts In First Half 2000

The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) traded an average daily nominal value of £279 billion (€421 billion) in June 2000 and totalled £31 trillion for the first half of 2000, maintaining its position as the world's largest electronic exchange by value traded.

LIFFE traded 12,858,834 futures and options contracts during the month of June 2000 representing an average daily volume of 584,492 contracts.

LIFFE's Chief Executive, Hugh Freedberg said, "Reduced interest rate uncertainty lead to lower market volatility which in turn resulted in lower volumes across Europe's exchanges. However LIFFE saw particularly strong volumes in the first half of the month in the run-up to the June contract expiry. LIFFE's market share in Euribor futures open interest has risen to 95% since the expiry".

LIFFE's flagship Three Month Euribor futures contract has seen an 84% increase in volume in the first half of 2000 compared to the same period last year, trading over 30 million contracts since the start of the year. In addition, LIFFE's equity products volume rose 25% in the first half of 2000 compared to the same period last year.

Following enhancements made to the FTSE Eurotop 100 Index implemented on 16 June 2000, open interest in LIFFE FTSE Eurotop 100 Index futures has increased by 66% compared with the end of the previous quarter.

The following records were set in June:

Euribor Future set a new daily record of 737,704 contracts on 8 June 2000 (previous daily record of 563,254 set on 5 April 2000).

Euro Pack (Euribor futures and options) set a new daily record of 821,748 on 8 June 2000 (previous daily record of 633,434 set on 5 April 2000).

FTSE 100 Future set a new daily record of 127,957 contracts on 14 June 2000 (previous daily record of 106,133 set on 16 March 2000).

Open interest in the Euribor Option set a daily record of 1,178,233 contracts on 19 June 2000 (previous daily record of 1,102,626 on 10 March 2000).

Open interest in the FTSE 100 Future set a daily record of 288,571 contracts on 16 June 2000 (previous daily record of 257,130 set on 17 March 2000).

Open interest in Equity Options set a new daily record of 867,471 contracts on 21 June 2000 (previous daily record of 833,592 set on 19 April 2000).

Open interest in the White Sugar Option set a new daily record of 23,239 contracts on 20 June (Previous daily record of 19,269 set on 31 May 2000).