The international derivatives exchange Eurex traded 135.7 million contracts in February, an increase of over 26 percent as against February 2006 (108 million contracts). On 28 February, Eurex reached a new daily turnover record with 12.8 million contracts (previous record from 13 June 2006 stood at 12.2 million). The average daily turnover in February was 6.7 million contracts.
Additional evidence for sustained growth on Eurex comes from open interest, which has increased further. Open interest reached a value of 118.5 million contracts at the end of February, as against almost 110 million at the end of January 2007.
Equity-based derivatives once again showed strong growth – the number of contracts traded was up by 41 percent year-on-year to 72 million (February 2006: 51 million contracts), 46.6 million of which were equity index derivatives and 25.6 million of which were equity options. The option on the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50 index reached a new record turnover of around 18 million contracts (previous record: 16.5 million in June 2006). There is strong demand for the Spanish equity options introduced in November 2006; turnover grew by 176 percent as against the previous month with approx. 35,000 contracts. Single stock futures also contributed to the strong growth, with a 15-fold increase in volume year-on-year, reaching 2.4 million contracts.
The fixed-income derivatives segment achieved 63 million contracts (February 2006: 56 million contracts). Around 27 million contracts were traded on the Euro-Bund-Future, which remains to top traded derivative on Eurex. In the Euro-Schatz-Future around 15 million contracts were traded. Year-on-year, the largest percentage increases related to the options in this segment with plus 35 percent to 7 million contracts. Open interest on fixed-income options rose by an even more impressive 57 percent year-on-year to 2.3 million contracts.
The electronic trading platform Eurex Bonds, which rounds off Eurex’s range of fixed income products, recorded a volume of €11.4 billion (single counting) in February, after €12.1 billion in the same month last year.
Trade with German government bonds continued to rise in February, reaching €9.5 billion (January 2007: €9.2 billion).