Press

Eurex, the international derivatives market, posted its second-highest monthly volume to date with over 102 million contracts traded in June (after 106 million contracts in March 2003). Compared with June 2002 (67 million contracts), Eurex volume for the month grew 52 percent. During the first half of 2003, the world's leading derivatives market turned over 524 million contracts, 42 percent higher than in the first six months of 2002. In June, Eurex also showed record results in various equity option and fixed-income products as well as in the equity options segment.

A total of 58 million contracts were traded in capital markt products at Eurex, even with the number traded in the record month of March 2003. Eurex set new turnover records in two of three fixed-income futures: A new record was set in the Euro-Bund future with 25.3 million contracts traded (previous record: 24.2 million contracts in March 2003), a 64 percent
increase year on year. The Euro-Bobl future beat its previous record of 15.2 million contracts traded in March 2003 with volume of 15.6 million contracts in June, a 77 percent increase over the previous year's June level. Volume in the Euro-Schatz future, with 11.6 million contracts traded, was 40 percent higher than in June 2002.

In equity-based derivatives, 44.3 million contractswere traded in June, comprising 25.7 million contracts in equity-index derivatives and 18.5 million contracts in equity options, setting a new record; the previous record was 15.6 million contracts traded in April 2003. The new record high underscores the growth trend in equity options at Eurex: In Dutch equity options, with 445,000 contracts traded, Eurex turned over roughly six times the number traded in June 2002; in the French equity options segment, as much as 14 times the number was traded as in the same month the year before. On June 30, 2003, Eurex set a record in French equity options with a market share of 37.5 percent of the total market in French equity options, measured in terms of the nominal value of the equity options traded (nominal value of the transactions). The future on the DJ Euro STOXX 50, with 12.4 million contracts traded, showed its third-best result to date, and the future on the DAX, with 2.6 million contracts traded, its second-highest volume (after 3.2 million contracts in March 2003). The equity-index segment achieved its second-best result with 25.7 million contracts traded, after 32.8 million contracts in March 2003.

Eurex Bonds, the electronic trading platform that rounds out the Eurex offerings in the fixed-income segment, showed a distinct increase in trading activity by its market participants in June 2003. With 12.8 billion euros in turnover (single counting) in June, Eurex Bonds posted an increase of 29 percent compared with the figure for June 2002 (9.9 billion
euros).

EUREX Trading Volumes since 1998
(in contracts traded)