London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana: Record Start To Year With Group Equity Trades Up 43 Per Cent

So far this calendar year, the average daily number of electronic equity trades carried out on the London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana has been 1,076,107, an increase of 43 per cent on the first four months of 2007 and a record for the first four months of a year. During April, there were 20.4 million electronic equity trades, an increase of 38 percent on April 2007. The total value traded during the month was £251.3 billion (€318.1 billion), up 10 per cent on the previous year. The average daily number of electronic equity trades during the month increased by 19 per cent to925,768 while the average daily value declined by five per cent to £11.4 billion(€14.5 billion).

UK Order Book

During the month, the total number of trades on the UK order book was 13,806,373, up 62per cent on April 2007. The total value traded was £154.9 billion (€196 billion), an increase of 16 per cent on the previous year.

The average daily number of trades during the month was 627,562, up 40 per cent on the previous year while the average daily value traded was flat at £7.0 billion(€8.9 billion).

In the first four months of this year, the average daily number of trades was742,203, a year on year increase of 72 per cent.

Italian Order Book

The total number of equity trades on the Italian order book during April 2008 was5,777,306, up two per cent on the same period in 2007. The total value traded was down 16 per cent to €102 billion (£80.6 billion).

The average daily number of trades was 262,605 and the average daily value traded was €4.6 billion (£3.7 billion).

International Order Books

A total of 783,223 equity trades were made on the International Order Book in April2008, up 34 per cent on the previous year. The total value traded during the month was £15.9 billion (€20 billion),up 30 per cent on April 2007.

ETFs and ETCs

April saw another strong year on year increase in the number and value of ETFs and ETCs traded across the two markets. The total number of trades rose 44 per cent to 126,108 and the total value traded rose by 125 per cent to £4.5 billion (€5.7 billion).

Derivatives

8.5millioncontracts were traded on EDX London and IDEM during April 2008, an increase of 36 per cent on April2007. The notional value traded was up38 per cent to £137.7 billion (€174.2 billion).

Separately, there were 293,395 securitised derivatives trades during the month,amounting to a total value traded of £2.1billion (€2.7 billion).

Additional Information:

This release uses only electronic trading data; trades that are reported to the either London Stock Exchange or Borsa Italiana under their rules but executed away from their electronic order books are not included.

There were 22 trading days on both exchanges’ markets during April 2008, three more than during April 2007.

During April, the average daily number of trades on SETS – covering all equity based order book trading on the London Stock Exchange – was652,098. This was an increase of 40 per cent on April2007. The average daily value traded on SETS during the month was £7.7billion(€9.8billion),an increase of two per cent on April 2007.

Primary market data for April will be available on the websites of London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana later in the month.

The April 2008 value traded figures use a €:£ exchange rate of 1.2656. The exchange rate used for April 2007 was 1.4648.