In February, Fixed Income Derivatives was again the strongest performing segment, with 58.3 million contracts traded. At 27.2 million contracts, trading in the Euro Bund Future was up 57 percent on February 2004, setting a new monthly record (previous record: 25.5 million contracts in January 2005). There was also record trading in options on the Euro Bund Future, with 5.1 million contracts turned over (previous record: 3.4 million contracts in January 2005). Trading in the Euro Bobl Future increased year-on-year by 6 percent to 13 million contracts, while the Euro Schatz Future saw 11.4 million contracts traded, a rise of approximately 14 percent.
Equity-based derivatives also recorded strong growth in February, with turnover of around 42 million contracts. Of these, 23.3 million were for equity index derivatives, a year on year rise of around 22 percent, and some 18.7 million for equity options, an increase of approximately six percent over the same period. Futures and options on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 Index were, again in February, the strongest performing contracts for equity index derivatives. The option on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 index set a new record of 7.8 million contracts (previous record: 7.7 million contracts in March 2004). Turnover in trading with the future on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 index climbed by approximately 20 percent year on year, to 8.9 million contracts.
The electronic trading platform Eurex Bonds, which rounds off Eurex's fixed-income product range, turned over a volume of €9.6 billion in February (single counting). Monthly turnover in the "Jumbo Pfandbriefe" segment rose 54 percent on the year, to end at roughly €1.4 billion. Trading in the European Covered Bonds segment - launched in November 2004 - rose more than 261 percent month on month to €298 million.
