Average trading volume in April dipped slightly from March, to 440,199 trades. The total of 37.04 million trades for the first four months of 2000 marked an increase of +107% compared to the January-April period last year and was already above volume levels for all of 1997.
Eight new companies made their entry on the Premier Marché, Second Marché and Le Nouveau Marché in April, raising a combined capital of ?609 million. At month's end, total capitalization of Paris' equity markets stood at ?1,602 billion.
Trading activity on ParisBourse SBF SA derivatives markets reached 20.4 million contracts in April as total open interest increased by 17.3% for the month. At 13.96 million lots, trading of equity and index derivatives decreased as open interest showed a monthly rise of +17.5%. A total of 6,457,676 Euro Notional futures contracts were exchanged in April - a rise of +60.6% compared to March. The April performance of the Paris markets' indices was as follows: the CAC 40 (+2.13%), SBF 120 (+1.54%) and SBF 250 (+1.27%) showed increases as the SBF 80 (-1.75%), the MIDCAC (-6.64%) and Second Marché (-5.79%) indices decreased for the month. Both technology indices were also down: the ITCAC50 by -11.15% and the ITCAC by -7.34%. The 12-month performance shows rises of +236.82% for the ITCAC50, +185.38% for the ITCAC, +45.73% for the CAC 40, +40.96% for the SBF 80, +45.09% for the SBF 120 and +44.72% for the SBF 250, with the MIDCAC and Second Marché indices increasing by +48.13% and +46.05%, respectively.
Of the three SBF 250 sector indices, financials and industrials increased in April by +5.32% and +2.67% respectively with services declining by -4.06%. For the last 12 months, services (+48.68%) is ahead of industrials (+48.45%) and financials (+29.30%).
Trading on MTS France now in full speed. Trading was initiated in April on MTS France, Paris' new electronic trading system for the secondary market in French government bonds. MTS France, a joint venture between ParisBourse SBF SA, MTS SpA and the French Primary Dealers (Spécialistes en Valeurs du Trésor, or SVTs), was launched in October 1999 in collaboration with the French Treasury with the purpose of increasing the efficiency, transparency and liquidity of the entire secondary market, with ParisBourse SBF SA subsidiary Clearnet SBF SA acting as clearing house. Currently traded on MTS France are more than 30 securities which represent ?470 billion outstanding - practically equal to all French government debt with maturities from one to 30 years. AT ?590 billion of value outstanding, French government debt amounts to 25% of the combined government debt market throughout the euro zone.
