March proved to be a record month for PLUS with trading activity hitting new highs on the UKs newest stock exchange.
March saw 909,511 trades, an increase of 149% on 8 March. Trade value reached an all-time high of almost GBP 5 billion, up 63.79% against last year. Year-on-year, the number of shares traded rose 122% to a record 6.394 billion shares traded on PLUS.
First quarter figures showed a huge increase on last year with 16.5 billion shares traded valued at 12.489 billion from 2.4 million trades. Both the number of shares and bargains traded showed annual quarterly gains of well over 100%.
March also saw average daily trades at 41,341 the highest ever on PLUS. Other trading highs include gains not only in the small and mid-caps, but in the large caps. Notably the month saw PLUS secure 23.48% market share by trade value in Lloyds Banking Group stock during a particularly busy month for retail trading in financial stocks.
Strong March figures followed solid gains in February, when PLUS Markets attracted 7.53% of all UK equity trading activity according to the Thomson Reuters MiFID Market Share Report, making PLUS the third largest trading venue in the UK.
Our Q1 trading activity clearly demonstrates PLUS ability to offer an attractive and effective trading venue in the most competitive conditions and challenging environment, says Cyril Thret, director, Business Development. We are particularly pleased that PLUS is growing market share in competition with established exchanges and other MTFs.
L.D.