ParisBourse Derivatives Trading Up In The First Half Despite Slackening In June

Despite a modest decline of 4.8% from May to June, trading on ParisBourse SBF SA derivative markets during the first half was up 31% from the same period of 1999. A total of 127,185,368 futures and options were traded over the six months, while the figure for June was 21,307,565 after 22,379,347 in May.

A 10% rise in equity and index derivatives trading from the first half of 1999 to the same period of this year mainly reflected strong trends for CAC 40 index options and short and long-term equity options which showed rises of 13%, 23% and 71%, respectively. CAC 40 contracts led the field for European index derivatives during the first half, with 9,609,405 futures and 45,201,226 options traded.

The Euro Notional future made steady progress, with over 27 million contracts traded in the first half - six and half times the figure for the same period of 1999 - reflecting the renewed interest of end clients in other countries. Two years after the switch from open outcry to electronic trading, first-half volumes were thus back close to the record 31 million lots traded in the first six months of 1994.

Turning to commodities, trading in the rapeseed future averaged 443 lots a day during the first half, while the milling wheat future averaged 129 lots a day. These figures represent the equivalents of 22,150 tonnes of rapeseed and 6,450 tonnes of milling wheat. At the end of June, open interest in the rapeseed future stood at a particularly high 14,212 lots.