LIFFE's Euribor Futures And Options Set New Records In January 2000

The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) traded an average daily nominal value of £219 billion (343 billion) in January 2000, up 117% on December 1999 and up 11% on the average daily nominal value for 1999 as a whole. This means LIFFE maintained its position as Europe's largest exchange by value. The Exchange traded a total of 9,828,971 million futures and options contracts, up 86% on December 1999 and up 4% on the average daily volume for 1999 as a whole. LIFFE's Three-Month Euribor futures and options set new daily volume records on 27 January. The Euribor future traded 394,616 (previous daily record of 372,435 set on 2 June 1999); the Euribor option traded 117,128 contracts (previous daily record of 80,160 set on 3 September 1999). Open interest in the Euribor future reached a new high of 1,374,295 contracts. The total underlying interest in all the Euro money market contracts at the end of the month exceeded 2,520 billion. LIFFE's Chief Executive, Hugh Freedberg said: "The Euribor future and option has shown encouraging growth this month, up 53% and 88% respectively on the average daily volume in 1999. With the wider distribution of LIFFE CONNECT™ in Europe and the US we are seeing an increase in volumes across all the short-term interest rate contracts (up 11% on 1999's average daily volume). In January LIFFE's equity products increased in volume by 9% on last year's average daily volume with equity options up 33%."