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During the first seven months of 2007, BM&F’s agricultural markets (including futures, options, and ex-pit) added more than one million traded contracts. From January to July, 1.01 million contracts were traded, with a 44.9% growth in volume in comparison to the same period last year (697.84 thousand contracts). In July/2007, the volume reached 148.88 thousand contracts, a record for that month and an increase of 43.2% in relation to the previous year - 103.97 thousand contracts were traded in July/2006.
In July, the markets (futures, options, and ex-pit) with the best performance were live cattle, soybean, and corn. Live cattle, which in July/2006 reached 41.22 thousand contracts, this year, increased to 66.17 thousand contracts, an increase of 60.53%. The soybean market, with 13.69 thousand contracts in July/2007, surpassed by 63.03% the July/2006 volume of 8.40 thousand contracts. The corn market exceeded the 8.32 thousand contracts traded in July/2005 (the previous record), registering in July/2007 9.83 thousand contracts.
At the end of the last trading day of July/2007, open interest reached 139.35 thousand contracts, 77% above the volume registered during the same time last year. Coffee, live cattle, and ethanol futures hit record open interest in July/2007. Coffee futures registered an open interest of 45.74 thousand on the 07/16 against 45.62 thousand registered on 07/13 of this year (previous record); live cattle futures registered an open interest of 55.30 thousand on July 30th; ethanol futures registered 1.27 thousand on July 25th.
