Press

Trading volume at the international derivatives market Eurex continued to grow in September. Approximately 100 million contracts were traded at the world's largest derivatives exchange in September, 31 percent more than in the previous month. Daily average trading volume in September was 4.5 million contracts. At 804 million contracts, turnover for the first three quarters of 2004 represents a year-on-year increase of around 3 percent.

The highest turnover in September was delivered by the fixed income derivatives segment, which with 57.2 million contracts accounted for more than half of the volume traded on Eurex. The Euro Bund Future retained its position as the most successful product with around 25 million contracts traded. This is the second highest monthly trading volume in this product. The Euro Bobl Future accounted for 15.5 million contracts, while the traded volume of Euro Schatz Future contracts totaled 11.7 million contracts.

42.5 million contracts were traded in equity-based derivatives in September, 26.8 million of which were equity index derivatives and 15.7 million equity options. The most heavily traded contract among the equity index derivatives was the future on the DJ Euro Euro-STOXX 50 index with 12.2 million contracts.

Trading in Dutch and French equity options remained strong. Some 911,000 contracts were traded in Dutch equity options in September, 24 percent more than in the same month of the previous year and a new monthly record. Traded volume in this segment for the first three quarters of 2004 was up by around 25 percent year on year to 6.4 million contracts. Some 232,000 contracts were traded in French equity options in September, 37 percent more than in the same month of the previous year. Trading volume for the first nine months of the year more than doubled to 2.1 million contracts (Jan-Sept. 2003: 1 million contracts).

The electronic trading platform Eurex Bonds, which rounds off Eurex's fixed-income product range, saw a volume of around 8.5 billion euros (single counting) in August. Currently 31 participants are connected to Eurex Bonds.