IntercontinentalExchange Group (NYSE: ICE), the leading global network of exchanges and clearing houses, today announced that Liffe reached a daily volume record of 905,515 contracts in Long Gilt futures on May 27, 2014. The previous volume record was 815,251 contracts on November 27, 2012.
Year to date, Long Gilt futures have recorded an average daily volume of 169,641 contracts and open interest is currently at 386,634 contracts.
On March 31, 2014, Liffe launched Ultra Long Gilt futures, which have had a strong start with total volume of 24,819 contracts traded since launch. Open interest for Ultra Long Gilt futures is at 3,307 lots as at May 26, 2014.
The Liffe Gilt market provides comprehensive coverage of the UK sovereign curve, including Short, Medium, Long and Ultra Long Gilt futures contracts, which provide effective instruments to manage price risk for UK debt exposure as well as basis trading opportunities across the curve. Trading activity in the Liffe Gilt market has seen more than 17 million contracts traded since the start of 2014.
The Exchange’s bond derivatives portfolio is soon to be extended with the launch of German, Swiss, Italian and Spanish government bond futures. These new products will trade alongside Liffe’s existing benchmark interest rate contracts, providing Liffe with the most comprehensive on-exchange interest rate offering across the European interbank and government yield curves.
With the launch of European government bond futures, Liffe will provide market participants with significant cross-product margin and capital efficiencies for interest rates, as well as the facility to execute block-trades and trade a myriad of government bond strategies, for example across Bunds and Gilts, Schatz and Euribor, more efficiently and on a single liquid platform.