Over 14 Million Contracts Traded On Parisbourse Derivatives Markets In August

Over 14 million contracts were traded on derivatives markets operated by ParisBourse SBF SA in August, representing a 4.5% decline on the previous month and a 6.1% increase on August 1999. Open interest was up 10.4% at 32.9 million lots.

Equity and index derivatives accounted for 11.7 million contracts for a daily average of 510,717. From January to August, trade in short and long-term options rose by 20% and 33.5%, respectively, compared with the same period of 1999.

In interest-rate derivatives, 2.3 million Euro Notional futures contracts were traded. This makes August 2000 the second best month of August since the contract's launch in 1986, despite a 27.9 decline on July. In commodities, open interest is up 18.8% despite a decline in activity on last month.