Trading On Eurex Increases More Than 20 Percent To 80 Million Contracts In December - Eurex Ends 2004 With A New Record Year

The international derivatives market Eurex has closed out 2004 with a record volume of 1.07 billion contracts (2003: 1.014 billion contracts), thus remaining the world’s largest derivatives exchange. In December 2004, trading volume continued to rise on Eurex: 80.1 million contracts were traded and settled, an increase of around 21 percent year-on-year (December 2003: 65.98 million contracts). At around 61 million contracts, open interest rose by around 35 percent y-o-y. The number of open positions (open interest) is considered one of the most important indicators for the future growth of a derivatives market.

The products with the strongest volumes in December were once again the capital market products, which accounted for approximately 46 million contracts, an increase of around 40 percent over December 2003. The Euro-Bund future was once again Eurex’s most successful product at 20.2 million contracts, a rise of near 50 percent y-o-y. Trading volume in the Euro-Bobl future was up 35 percent y-o-y at 12.5 million contracts, while trading in the Euro-Schatz future rose 27 percent, to 9.2 million contracts.

34.3 million contracts were traded in equity-based derivatives (December 2003: 33.8 million contracts), 21.5 million of which were equity index derivatives and 12.8 million where equity options. The most heavily traded contract among the equity index derivatives was the future on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 index with 10.5 million contracts, which is a rise of more than 11 percent on the previous year. Open interest in this product set a new record, reaching 1.95 million contracts by mid-December. The most traded stock option in December was Allianz, with 1.46 million contracts.