Press

The international derivatives exchange Eurex traded a total of 140.5 million contracts in November (excluding ISE volume), compared with 171.6 million contracts in November 2007 and 130.0 million in November 2006. Open interest currently stands at 161.7 million contracts, compared to 144.1 million in November 2007. For the first time, Eurex exceeded the threshold of 2 billion contracts year-to-date (Jan – Nov 2008: 2.05 billion contracts), an increase of 15 percent (Jan – Nov 2007: 1.78 billion contracts).

The equity index derivatives segment was the segment with the highest turnover, recording 79.7 million contracts. Compared with Nov 2007, the segment grew by 9 percent (Nov 2007: 73.2 million). The Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50^® Index future saw around 32.9 million contracts and the option on the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50^® Index traded the same number of contracts. The future on the dividends of the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50^® Index reached a new monthly peak of 48,500 contracts.

The equity derivatives segment (equity options and single stock futures) traded 26.4 million contracts (Nov 2007: 34.6 million). Within this segment, equity options made up 24.0 million contracts and single stock futures another 2.4 million contracts.

The interest rate derivatives segment reached turnover in November of 34.3 million contracts (Nov 2007: 63.8 million). The Euro Bund Future traded 12.7 million contracts, followed by the Euro Schatz Future with 9.0 million contracts and the Euro-Bobl-Future with 7.9 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 3.4 million contracts (Nov 2007: 4.3 million). In total, 65.2 million contracts were traded in November 2008. On a year-to-date basis, average daily trading volume of all options increased 28 percent to 4.1 million contracts.

Eurex Repo, which operates CHF and EUR repo markets, set a new record: its secured money market segment, GC Pooling, had a new daily outstanding volume peak at €60.7 billion. Average outstanding volume on monthly basis was at €50.2 billion, an increase of 139 percent y-o-y. Altogether, the Eurex Repo markets grew by 54 percent and reached average outstanding volume of €144.1 billion.

Approximately €7.8 billion (single counting) was traded in November on the Eurex Bonds electronic trading platform, which rounds out Eurex’s range of fixed income products, compared to €10.2 billion in November 2007.