Another record year for equity derivatives
Monep CAC 40 index futures and equity options were again the European leaders in their categories.
Equity options benefited from record volumes on the Paris stock exchange, with trades up 31% and premiums 74%. Most heavily traded options were Alcatel, France Télécom and Vivendi Universal.
A total of 21 new options on 15 underlying stocks were introduced in 2000. Of these 15 stocks, five are CAC 40 components (Dexia, Cap Gemini, Thomson Multimedia, EADS and Dassault Systèmes) and nine components of the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50SM index (Allianz, BASF, Bayerische Hypo&Vereinsbank, DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank , Nokia and Siemens) while the fifteenth is Clarins, a component of the SBF 80.
Trading in the CAC 40 future represented a total of 18,249,903 contracts in 2000. Trading in CAC 40 options averaged 329,556 contracts a day, while premiums were up 6.58% from the previous year.
Trading in index futures on the Dow Jones STOXX 50SM and the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50SM represented a total of 1,023,199 contracts compared with 540,607 in 1999. Open interest at December 29, 2000 stood at 26,001 contracts compared with 17,282 at December 31, 1999. Trading in futures on DJ STOXXSM sector indices picked up from 1,128 contracts in 1999 to 6,243 in 2000.
Interest-rate derivatives firm
Business growth for fixed-income derivatives was driven by the Euro Notional futures, with the number of contracts traded up to 43.3 million in 2000 or 606% more than the 6.1 million traded in 1999. Turning to the 3-month Euribor future, 195,169 lots were traded and open interest at December 29, 2000 stood at 17,486 lots.
Modest decline in commodity derivatives
Trading in commodity derivatives totaled 182,207 contracts, representing 9,110,350 metric tons, in 2000. Trading in rapeseed futures averaged 454 lots a day with the full-year total 115,840. The corn future launched on October 1, 1999 showed open interest of 7,073 lots at December 29, 2000, while trading during the year averaged 109 lots a day. The contract has thus proven its worth in meeting the requirements of professionals in the sector.
On April 14, 2000, the range of commodity contracts was rounded out with a new rapeseed oil future developed in association with industry professionals.
