Euronext Amsterdam: Trading In Shares And Equity Options Doubles

October saw extremely high trading volumes on Euronext Amsterdam’s stock and derivatives markets. Turnover in shares on the stock market peaked at euro 141 billion, twice as much as in October 1999. So far this year, share trading is 73% higher than in the same period last year. Trading volumes have also shown a sharp increase. In October alone, a million more transactions were conducted than in the same month last year.

October is always a very busy month on the derivatives market, owing to the major expiration that takes place in that month. However, this year saw the highest ever trading volumes for the month of October. The all time daily record in turnover (695.000 contracts) was reached on Friday 20 October, expiration day. The old recordvolume was reached during the April expiration in 1998 (660.000 contracts). In addition, premium turnover in equity options more than doubled compared with the same month last year.

On Euronext’s commodities market, potatoes turned in a strong performance. The volume of potato futures traded was up more than 140% on October 1999, while the number of outstanding potato options increased by more than 31%.

The monthly statistics of Euronext Paris and Euronext Brussels are available on our website (www.euronext.com)