March was the most successful month ever at Eurex. The derivatives market set a new record in monthly volume with over 106 million contracts traded, beating the previous record set in October 2002 (86.6 million contracts) by some 20 million contracts. Compared with March 2002 (62.7 million contracts), Eurex volume increased 69 per cent. During the first quarter of 2003, Eurex has turned over more than 265 million contracts. In March, Eurex also posted trading records in index and fixed-income products.
A total of 58.5 million contracts were traded in capital market products at Eurex, with new record volumes in all three fixed-income futures: The Euro-Bund future enjoyed volume of 24.2 million contracts traded (previous record: 22.3 million contracts in January 2003). The Euro-Bobl future beat its previous record of 12.4 million contracts, set in October 2002, and rose to 15.2 million contracts in March. The Euro-Schatz future achieved its highest volume to date with 13.2 million contracts traded (previous record: 12.7 million contracts in October 2002). Trading in options on the Bobl also achieved a new record high with some 1.1 million contracts traded, surpassing its previous record of 930,000 contracts traded in November 2001.
In equity-based derivatives, over 47.8 million contracts were traded in March, comprising a record high of 32.8 million contracts in equity-index derivatives and 14.9 million in equity options. A new record was set in this segment in both futures and options on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 with volumes of 16.5 and 6.2 million contracts, respectively, topping the previous records set in September 2002 (12.5 million contracts) and January 2003 (5.7 million contracts). The equity options segment, with 14.9 million contracts traded, achieved its second-highest level in March, after peak volume of 15.2 million contracts in January 2003.
In March 2003, the Eurex Bonds electronic trading platform, which rounds out the Eurex offerings in the fixed-income segment, again saw an increase in trading activity. Eurex Bonds posted turnover of Euros 16.75 billion in March (single counting), as compared to turnover of Euros 12.83 billion and Euros 14.87 billion in January and February 2003, and Euros 8.06 billion in March 2002. Thus, Eurex Bonds more than doubled its turnover in March against the previous year’s figure and was also another 12 percent higher than in February 2003.