Eurex achieves another record-breaking month

Eurex, the international derivatives exchange, has reported record-breaking volumes for March 2003. More than 106 million contracts were traded last month, an increase of almost 20 million over the previous monthly high, set in October 2002. Year-on-year, performance is up 69% compared with volumes last March.

Breaking down performance, 58.5 million contracts were traded in capital market products. Record volumes were achieved in each of the three fixed-income futures categories that Eurex offers. A total of 24.2 million euro-Bund futures were traded versus a previous high of 22.3 million. Euro-Bobl futures saw 15.2 million contracts traded versus a previous record of 12.4 million. Euro-Schatz futures rose to 13.2 million, surpassing a previous best of 12.7 million contracts; and trading in euro-Bobl options also reached a record level of 1.1 million contracts. The previous high was 930,000 in November 2001.

In equity derivatives, contracts hit 47.8 million trades in March. These included a record 32.8 million equity-index derivatives. Among other records in this category, DJ Euro Stoxx 50 saw best-ever volumes in both futures and options.