NYSE Liffe U.S., the innovative U.S. futures exchange of NYSE Euronext (NYX), today announced that it has signed a license amendment with MSCI (NYSE:MSCI), a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, to continue its success in expanding the coverage of its suite of domestic and international index futures products on MSCI equity indices through November 1, 2021. On the heels of a record-setting year in 2012 and continued momentum in 2013, the mini MSCI futures complex reached a single day record volume of 172,181 contracts on March 8th. YTD through March 15, 2013, mini MSCI futures on NYSE Liffe U.S. are trading at an all-time record of 28,000 contracts daily, up 101% vs. Q1 2012 and up 45% vs. full year 2012. Open Interest in mini MSCI futures contracts also stands at 280,000, up 109% vs. end of Q1 2012 and up 20% since year-end 2012. With 26 Block trades at Index Close (BIC) trades in March 2013 alone, NYSE Liffe U.S. has surpassed $15 billion in notional value for BIC trading on 567 block transactions.
“When we first began our relationship with MSCI in 2009, we envisioned building a suite of innovative futures products to serve the investment and hedging needs of global equity market participants managing the trillions of dollars estimated to be benchmarked to MSCI indices[1],” said Tom Callahan, CEO, NYSE Liffe U.S. “Since then, with extraordinary support from our global customers, we’ve developed a comprehensive product portfolio and wholesale trading facilities that continue to reach new record highs in trading volume, open interest and participation from a diverse range of global market participants, making NYSE Liffe U.S. the most liquid destination for futures based on MSCI indices.”
”This latest agreement reflects not only NYSE Liffe U.S.’s role in the substantial growth in the derivatives markets globally but also the continued and growing use of MSCI indices as the benchmark of choice,” said Baer Pettit, Managing Director and Global Head of the MSCI Index Business. “We look forward to continuing to work with them as they further develop their product suite.”
These 2013 records build upon the significant growth in 2012 when mini MSCI Index Futures traded a record Average Daily Volume (ADV) of 19,220, up 68% from 2011. Led by consistently growing trading volume in MSCI Emerging Markets and MSCI EAFE during 2012, NYSE Liffe U.S. experienced record year-over-year volume gains of 87% and 43% in those products, respectively. Open Interest in the contracts closed out 2012 at 233,752 contracts, up 113% from year-end 2011.
In May 2009, NYSE Liffe U.S. signed its original license agreement with MSCI to offer a broad suite of domestic and international index futures products built on a range of MSCI equity indices. These indices include flagship MSCI indices like the MSCI Emerging Markets (EM) and MSCI EAFE indices as well as the recently launched mini MSCI Canada, mini MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America and mini MSCI World indices. MSCI calculates over 150,000 equity indices daily as part of a diverse index portfolio including broad and efficient market coverage of U.S. and European equity markets. MSCI indices are recognized and used by leading asset managers around the world.
For more information on mini MSCI index futures contracts please visit: http://www.nyx.com/minimscis
