The Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) executed a new high of 392,202,371 contracts in 2021, surpassing its previous record of 341,393,346 contracts set in 2020 by 14.9%.
Of all, Single Stock Futures (STF) demonstrated the biggest trading volume growth across all asset classes, with a total of 74,994,818 contracts traded and an average daily volume (ADV) of 307,356 contracts, an increase of 191.4% compared to 2020. STF on Evergreen Marine, United Microelectronics and Innolux were among the top three performers, totalling 18,995,568 contracts, 6,752,418 contracts and 5,208,368 contracts, respectively over the year, highlighting strong demand for hedging exposures in these internationalized Taiwanese companies.
In addition to equity futures, market participants continued to show strong interest in trading the Exchange’s equity index contracts. The average daily volume of Mini-TAIEX Futures (MTX) grew 20.0% to 294,219 contracts, while TAIEX Options (TXO) – the world’s seventh most traded equity index option ranked by the Futures Industry Association – and TAIEX Futures (TX) traded on a comparable level to 2020. The trading of TAIFEX’s Nasdaq-100 Futures increased 11.7%, as investors actively used these contracts to express their views on U.S. tech stocks.
Meanwhile, in line with the global trend of listing mini-sized contracts to cater to surging retail participation, TAIFEX introduced Mini Electronics Sector Futures (ZEF) in June and Mini Finance Sector Futures (ZFF) in December, and both have been welcomed by market participants, recording ADVs of 3,628 contracts and 411 contracts, respectively since launch.
2021 has also seen the ongoing expansion of foreign participation. Continuing with its steady growth strength in recent years, trading by foreign institutional investors accounted for 31.5% of total trading on TAIFEX, up from 26.0% in 2020. Foreign institutions’ increased trading in STF is the primary driver of the rise, up 218.5% as compared to 2020.
In 2022, TAIFEX will continue to bring greater diversity to its product offering, to refine its rules and measures, to upgrade its IT system and to further its service to the market.
