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PLUS Markets today announced strong trading activity in February. Year on year, February trades were up by 100% at 708,943 representing 5.196 billion shares, an increase of 217% over the same period in 2008 and a new record high for PLUS.
The new UK stock exchange continues to make inroads and take market share as its trading activity exceeds other growth markets**. February saw PLUS register an average daily trading volume in excess of 35,000 making it the most active platform in this sector. In the small and mid-caps trading on its platform including FTSE SmallCap, FTSE Fledgling, dual-trading AIM stocks and all PLUS-quoted securities, PLUS took 33.65% market share*** by volume of shares traded.
Other noteworthy trading highs for the month include PLUS’ market share activity in the large-caps. During February, PLUS captured 22.41% by trade value in the Royal Bank of Scotland stock, one of the most actively traded stocks in the past few months.
| Name |
Market Share % in Value (February 2009) |
Market Share % in Value (January 2009) | Market Share % in Value (December 2008) |
| ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND GROUP | 22.41% | 17.35% | 11.84% |
| LLOYDS BANKING GROUP | 20.16% | 14.56% | 16.36% |
| BARCLAYS | 18.72% | 15.15% | 10.33% |
PLUS has been consolidating its market share across all sectors, and in the January Thomson Reuters MiFID Market Share Report, PLUS took almost seven percent of all UK equity trading as the LSE dropped to under 60 percent for the first time. Last year, PLUS ranked 4th largest, but in January a surge in volumes shot PLUS to third place.*
“Despite difficult market conditions, PLUS is gaining traction” said Business Development Director Cyril Theret. “Substantial transaction volume is routinely coming to PLUS attracted by its liquidity offering and low cost execution model. With the dark pool facility due on stream shortly we expect to build still further on this momentum.”
| Month | Bargains | Trade value | Number of shares |
| August 2008 | 278,638 | £2,241.036 m | 1,538.692 m |
| September 2008 | 555,958 | £4,447.33 m | 2,650.07 m |
| October 2008 | 806,57 | £4,382.21 m | 3,278.69 m |
| November 2008 | 524,919 | £3,035.45 m | 2,745.61 m |
| December 2008 | 439,603 | £2,546.84 m | 2,420.83 m |
| January 2009 | 781,485 | £3,781.31 m | 4,994.16 m |
| February 2009 | 708,943 | £3,731 m | 5,196.82 m |
PLUS Markets is an independent stock exchange in London, with “Recognised Investment Exchange” status, and classed as a Market Operator under MiFID. Its offering includes the full range of stock exchange activities, namely: trading execution, the provision of proprietary market data and listing/quotation destinations. PLUS currently trades over 7,500 securities on its platform including London-listed shares (including the FTSE 100), European liquid shares, and unlisted shares quoted on the AIM and PLUS markets.
*http://about.reuters.com/productinfo/compliance/mifid/material/MarketShareReport_January2009.pdf
** AIM February 2009: Number of Bargains - 256,743 / Average Daily Trading -12,837 (source: http://www.londonstockexchange.com/NR/rdonlyres/CA7EF66E-58FD-493B-9084-35EAE7645CAE/0/AIMMarketStatistics0902.pdf )
*** Taking into account LSE and Chi-X numbers only. Data from Netbuilder.
