Chi-X Europe, the pan-European equities exchange, has announced record Q1 trading volumes, with the number of quarterly trades up 25% year-on-year to 59.1 million. According to a statement from Chi-X, trading participants saved in excess of 40 million in price improvements on Chi-X Europe in Q1, representing an average basis point price improvement of 1.49.
Alasdair Haynes, CEO of Chi-X Europe, said, We are immensely grateful to our trading participants for their ongoing support as we continue to win market share across the leading indices and broaden our customer base. Our continued growth demonstrates the sustainability of our low cost business model. Chi-X Europe is a successful, profitable and well-capitalized business and we look forward to playing a pivotal role as the industry evolves from national to pan-European models like ours.
Haynes continued, We believe these results are testimony to market demand for a low cost, efficient, pan-European exchange and demonstrate that we are witnessing a sea change in the way in which equities are traded in Europe. Our goal is to continue to identify ways in which to help our trading participants reduce the frictional cost of trading, to help them reach new pools of liquidity and to improve the overall quality of the market.
According to the Federation of European Stock Exchanges, Chi-X Europe was ranked third largest equity exchange by value traded in February 2010.
The Fidessa Fragmentation Index, a measure of how different stocks are fragmenting across primary markets and alternative venues, shoes the London Stock Exchange’s daily volume hovering around 20 billion. In comparison, Chi-X Europe’s daily volume, although volatile, has recently peaked at 30 billion, and has claimed 26.08% trading share of the FTSE 100.