Press

The international derivatives exchange Eurex traded a total of 226.6 million contracts in October (excluding ISE volume), a year-on-year increase of 55 percent (October 2007: 145.9 million contracts). The strong growth is partly attributable to the increased use of exchange-traded derivatives during the current market crisis. On a year-to-date basis, Eurex volumes rose by 18 percent achieving 1.9 billion contracts (Jan – Oct 2007: 1.6 billion contracts).

Strongest growth was seen again in the equity index derivatives segment, which rose by 140 percent to 140.0 million contracts (Oct 2007: 58.4 million), a new monthly record. The Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50® Index future saw around 56.6 million contracts (second-best monthly result). Turnover of the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50® Index option rose by a third compared with the previous record month September 2008 and peaked at the new record of 60.2 million contracts. Options and futures on DAX® also reached new peaks with 13.3 million and 6.2 million contracts.

The equity derivatives segment (equity options and single stock futures) grew by 28 percent y-o-y and reached a volume of 34.1 million contracts (Oct 2007: 26.6 million). Within this segment, equity options counted 30.4 million contracts and single stock futures another 3.6 million contracts.

The interest rate derivatives segment reached turnover in October of 52.5 million contracts (Oct 2007: 61.0 million). The Euro Bund Future traded 19.8 million contracts, followed by the Euro Schatz Future with 13.1 million contracts and the Euro-Bobl-Future with 12.2 million.

At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), which has been part of Eurex since December 2007, US options reached an average daily trading volume of 4.4 million contracts (Oct 2007: 3.7 million). In total, 102.0 million contracts were traded in October 2008. On a year-to-date basis, average daily trading volume of all options increased 34 percent to 4.2 million contracts.

Eurex Repo, which operates CHF and EUR repo markets, set new record volumes: the secured money market segment, Euro GC Pooling, increased outstanding volumes to EUR 51.2 billion, daily outstanding volume peaked at a new record level of EUR 57.7 billion. The EUR repo market grew by 95 percent and set a record of average outstanding volume of EUR 81.6 billion (Oct 2007:EUR 41.9 billion). The CHF repo market grew to the record value of EUR 77.5 billion.

Approximately EUR 8.1 billion (single counting) was traded in October on the Eurex Bonds electronic trading platform, which rounds out Eurex’s range of fixed income products, compared to EUR 11.5 billion in October 2007. Trading volume in September 2008 was EUR 10.2 billion.