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Business up 28% on French derivatives markets in March
New records for equity and index options
Trading in interest-rate derivatives up 26%
April 2, 1998
I- MONEP equity derivatives
Trading volume in MONEP equity derivatives totalled 1,648,918 contracts in March, up 33.5% on February. Open interest at month's end was 1,627,786 contracts.
OptionsThe number of contracts traded breached the one-million barrier for the first time ever (1,044,094). Premium turnover also set a new monthly record at FF7.96bn, breaking the previous monthly record of FF5.9bn set in October 1997. A new record was also set for open interest, with 2,057,661 contracts on 27 March. Open interest at the end of the month was 1,190,013 contracts. Options on the CAC 40 index set a monthly record for premium turnover at FF5.69bn. The previous record was October 1997's total of FF4.77bn. Equity options also set new monthly records, both in terms of trading volume -631,193 contracts compared with 491,882 in December 1997- and of premium turnover, with FF2.28bn versus FF1.34bn in December 1997.
Futures
Trading volume in the CAC 40 future totalled 604,824 contracts in March, a rise of 31.4%. An all-time high was reached on 3 March when the March expiry traded at 3,863.
II- MATIF interest-rate derivatives
A total of 4,428,821 interest-rate contracts were traded on Matif in March 1998, 26% more than in the previous month. This was against a backdrop of low market volatility reflecting convergence of European interest rates.
Volumes of both interest-rate futures and interest-rate options showed a rise from February. Trends were particularly vigorous for the Pibor future and the related options, with trading up 63.2% and 65.4%, respectively, as for the Matif 5-year future and the related options, where rises were 32.7% and 49.4%, respectively. Finally, the rise for the Notional bond future was 19.3%.
Open interest in Matif 5-year options was up 61.1% from the
previous month and that in the Notional options 25.1%.
III- MATIF commodity futures
Trading in the 45 Icumsa white sugar contract was up 57.8% from February, reflecting renewed interest from producers.
Trading in the milling wheat future has averaged 173 lots a day
since its launch on March 27 this year. This is an encouraging result,
since volumes on the physical market are low, with prices close to the
EU intervention price.
Contacts :
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