In August 2008, the number of trades executed on Xetra reached 13.8 million transactions down 28% compared to August 2007 with 19.3 million trades. Order book turnover on Xetra recorded 127.3 billion (August 2007: 251.5 billion), down by 49%. The decrease in comparison with the same month last year is attributed to the beginning of the US subprime that resulted in high volumes in August 2007.
On Xetra and the Frankfurt floor 124.2 billion were turned over in German equities and 6.3 billion in foreign shares. 98% of the transaction volume with German equities and roughly 86% of foreign equities were traded on Xetra and on the floor at Boerse Frankfurt.
According to the Xetra liquidity measure (XLM), E.ON AG was the most liquid DAX blue chip in August with 6 basis points (bp) for an order volume of 100,000. K + S AG was the most liquid MDAX stock with 22 bp. The most liquid ETF was db x-trackers ETF II-EONIA T.R. 1C with 1 bp. The most liquid foreign stock was Royal Dutch Shell with 14 bp. XLM measures liquidity in electronic securities trading on the basis of the implicit transaction costs. It is expressed in basis points (1 bp = 0.01%); a low XLM denotes high liquidity in a security.
Deutsche Bank AG was the strongest DAX stock on Xetra in August at 7.7 billion. K+S AG was the top MDAX stock at 2.8 billion while Bauer AG led the SDAX stock at 81.4 million and Q-Cells AG headed the TecDAX at 865.7 million. At 1.7 billion, the iShares DAX was once again the exchange-traded fund with the largest turnover.
On all stock exchanges in Germany 146 billion were traded in August according to order book turnover statistics a decline as well by 49% compared year-on-year (August 2007: 288.5 billion). This total included 137.4 billion in equities, warrants and exchange-traded funds, as well as 8.6 billion in fixed-income securities. The number of trades at all exchanges added up to 20.6 million (August 2007: 33.9 million) which is a 39% decrease.