Approximately 86 million contracts were traded and cleared by Eurex in April. This represents an increase of almost nine percent compared to April 2003 (approx. 79 million contracts) for the world’s largest derivatives market, and corresponds to a daily average turnover of 4.3 million contracts.
The strongest performance in April was delivered by the Fixed Income Derivatives segment, which accounted for more than half of Eurex’s traded volume, or 45 million contracts. At 18 million contracts, the Euro-Bund Future retained its position as the most successful product. The Euro-Bobl Future achieved two digit growth, up 10 percent year-on-year to total around 12.5 million contracts. At 9.4 million contracts, the Euro-Schatz Future was up by around five percent on April 2003.
Eurex equity-based derivatives recorded turnover of around 41.5 million contracts in April. The equity options segment grew by more than 31 percent year-on-year to total 20.5 million contracts (April 2003: 15.6 million contracts). In addition, a new record was set in the trading of options on Nokia shares: 2.5 million Nokia equity options were traded in April 2004. The previous record of two million contracts was set in April 2002. The most heavily traded contract in the equity options segment in April was the future on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 index, which exceeded April 2003 results by 8.5 percent with nine million contracts. The option on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 index recorded almost 11 percent growth to approximately 5.3 million contracts (April 2003: 4.8 million contracts). The DAX future gained more than 19 percent, with turnover increasing from 1.9 million contracts (April 2003) to around 2.3 million contracts (April 2004).
The electronic trading platform Eurex Bonds, which rounds off Eurex’s fixed-income product range, recorded a volume of around 9.6 billion euros (US$ 11.52 billion) (single counting) in April 2004. Eurex Bonds introduced an electronic order book on 3 May. The electronic order book enables the input of one-sided, limited buy- and sell-orders, which are not executed immediately due to their limit. Until now, participants could only quote – i.e. set buy and sell prices at the same time – or trade in placed quotes. The order book will simplify order- and position-keeping for participants and facilitate new trading strategies.