Equity Trades Up 18% Across London Stock Exchange Group

by Jason Gorringe, for LawAndTax-News.com, London

11 July 2008

During June 2008 there were 20.4 million equity trades carried out on the electronic order books of the London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana, with a combined value of GBP243.9bn (EUR307.8bn).

The number of equity trades across the Group increased 18% compared with June last year, while the value traded decreased by 17%.

The average daily number of trades across the two markets was 970,317, while the average daily value traded was GBP11.6bn (EUR14.7bn).

On the UK equity order book, the average daily number of trades increased 33% on June last year to 685,093.

The average daily value traded was GBP7.7bn, a decrease of 8% on the then record figure for June 2007, but up 10% on the average daily value traded during May 2008.

The average value of the FTSE All Share was 14% lower in June 2008 than in June 2007.

In the first six months of the year, UK equity order book trading continued to outperform all other major European equity markets, with the average daily number of trades up 57% to 713,645 and a 9% increase in daily value traded to GBP8.2bn.

There were 5.1 million electronic trades in Italian equities during June, with a combined value of EUR82.8bn (GBP65.6bn).

This represented a decrease of 12% in the number of trades, and 37% in the value traded compared with June last year. The average value for the MIB index during June was down 28% year on year.

There were 908,609 international equity trades across the two markets during June 2008, 40% more than during the same month last year. The total value traded was also up year on year, increasing 6% to GBP17.1bn (EUR21.6bn).

ETFs and ETCs attracted 126,307 trades across the two markets during the month, an increase of 29% on the previous June. The total value traded in ETFs and ETCs was also up, increasing 90% year on year to GBP5.3bn (EUR6.8bn), second only to the record value traded during January 2008.

In the first half of this year, the total number of ETF and ETC trades carried out on the order books reached 881,517, an increase of 29% year on year, while the value traded has more than doubled year on year, up 103% to GBP29.9bn (EUR38.5bn).

A record 8.9 million contracts were traded on EDX and IDEM during June, up 25% year on year. The notional value traded during the month was GBP141.2bn (EUR178.7bn) down 8% on the same month last year.

The record trading volumes were driven by exceptional growth in EDX London’s FTSE Russia IOB service, which had its second record month in a row, with an average of 113,646 contracts traded per day, more than ten times the average for June 2007, and 63% higher than May’s record.

Separately, there were 240,745 trades in securitised derivatives during the month and the total value traded was GBP1.9bn (EUR2.4bn).

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