Press

The derivatives exchange Eurex reports a new world record in trading volume for the year 1999. According to preliminary figures, which comprise an estimate for the last exchange-trading day, 379 million contracts were traded this year as compared with 248 million contracts last year. This corresponds to an increase of about 53 percent in trading volume. Eurex closes out the year 1999 as the world's largest derivatives exchange by far, beating out the Chicago Board of Trade (CBoT), the number one derivatives exchange of previous years.

The highest-volume product was the BUND future with 144 million contracts traded (1998: 90 million contracts), followed by the BOBL future with about 52 million contracts traded (com-pared with 31.5 million in 1998) and the DAX^® option with 32.5 million contracts (against 30 million in 1998). Capital market products are the most active segment at Eurex, with 246 million contracts traded (compared with 141 million last year), ahead of the index derivatives, at 65.5 million contracts traded (45.5 million in 1998) and the stock options, with 65 million contracts traded in 1999 (1998: 61 million contracts).