PLUS Trading Volumes Up Almost 100% - Record High Monthly Volume Of Almost Five Billion Shares Traded

PLUS Markets – the new stock exchange for London - today announced very strong trading activity for the month of January 2009 with 781,485 trades, a 96.64% increase on January 2008. The number of shares traded rose 187% against the same month to a record high of 4.99 billion, while trade value was up by 30% at £3.78 billion for the month.

Starting the year on a strong note, PLUS - a leading small and mid-cap stock exchange - attracted very high volume activity. Some of this volume was in heavily traded large-cap stocks such as RBS, Barclays and Lloyds TSB which saw substantially increased market share on PLUS. In RBS alone, PLUS hit a high of 17.35% in market share by trade value in a month in which PLUS routinely attracted more volume activity.

On 20 January, the day following the RBS trading and capital restructuring announcement, PLUS attracted a significant share of trading in RBS:

PLUS has also consistently demonstrated market share gains in the small and mid-caps. In those AIM stocks dual-trading on its platform, PLUS recorded almost 50% (48.17%) market share in value*** for the month. PLUS has been making headway in all UK equities market share as shown in the most recent Thomson Reuters MiFID market share report (December 2008), where PLUS again ranked 3rd by volume (shares) with 4.38% of on-exchange trading in all UK equities.****

“Our trading activity is still growing. PLUS is attracting notable trading volumes, as well as huge interest from market participants. In January, we saw new trading members – BNP Paribas, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Cazenove - join PLUS. Our leadership in small and mid-caps and trading gains in large-caps, together with competitive tariffs continue to attract liquidity, order flow and members,” said Business Development Director Cyril Theret.

* Market shares provided by Netbuilder. Taking into account LSE and CHI-x numbers only.

** end of day figures only. PLUS figures OTC.

*** Market shares in trade value. Taking into account LSE numbers only.

**** Link - http://about.reuters.com/productinfo/compliance/mifid/material/MarketShareReport_December2008.pdf

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.