According to the order book statistics, trading volume at Boerse Stuttgart reached EUR 8.1 billion in January 2010, 23 percent up on the figure for December 2009 but 11 percent below the corresponding level of turnover achieved in January 2009. There was strong growth in trading of securitised derivatives, which ended the month on EUR 4.1 billion, 21 percent up on the preceding month and 9 percent above the figure for January 2009. This increase was driven largely by investment certificates with turnover in this asset class reaching EUR 1.9 billion. This is equivalent to an increase of over 30 percent on both the preceding month and on January 2009. Trading in leverage products was just short of EUR 2.0 billion.
“January is traditionally one of the busiest trading months of the year at the exchange. This time around, too, it seems that many investors have chosen to implement their medium- to long-term investment decisions at the beginning of the year. In January 2009 this trend was less evident following the introduction of the German flat-rate withholding tax, especially in the case of equities,” commented Oliver Hans, Managing Director of Baden-Wuerttembergische Wertpapierboerse. As a result, January 2010 provided some substantial increases, with equities in particular up over 142 percent year-on-year to reach EUR 851.6 million.
Trading in bonds, which form the second biggest asset class at Boerse Stuttgart, ended the month on EUR 2.6 billion. There was a high level of trading activity in corporate bonds, which rose 41 percent and 8 percent respectively on the figures for December and January 2009 to account for EUR 1.5 billion of this total. Turnover from investment fund units trading was also significantly higher at EUR 487.3 million, over 30 percent up on the preceding month and more than double (119 percent) the figure for January 2009.