August 4, 1998

I- MONEP equity derivatives

A total 6,183,607 contracts changed hands in July 1998, including 4,430,632 options and 1,752,975 futures.

Changes in contract size of most contracts on 1 July rule out direct month-on-month comparisons*.

Trading volume in new contracts based on the Dow Jones STOXX® 50 index and the Dow Jones Euro STOXX® 50 index, launched on 22 June, was 17,739 contracts, compared with 5,896 contracts in June.

Total open interest at 31 July stood at 10,283,477 contracts.

1/ Options

Trading volume included 3,645,511 equity options and 785,121 index options.

Premiums amounted to FF 6.2 billion.

The most active equity options were the short-term contract on France Telecom (402,951 contracts) and the long-term contract on Axa-UAP (136,232 contracts).

2/ Futures

Volume in CAC 40 futures, which totalled 1,737,393 in July, headed up at the end of the month, with 231,355 contracts traded on 29 July (compared with a daily average of 82,733 contracts for the month as a whole).

An all-time high was reached on 17 July when the July maturity peaked at 4,419.

II- Matif fixed-income derivatives

A total of 2,161,443 fixed-income contracts were traded on Matif in July 1998, traditionally a calm period on markets, all the more given little pace in underlying markets across Europe.

Open interest in the Notional and Matif 5-Year contracts rose 8.3% and 15.2%, respectively, on June, and held steady for the Pibor future and all options.

Locals (NCPs) accounted for around 20% of Matif trade volumes in July.

Altogether 365 NSC screens are now in operation, over one-fourth of them outside France. The figure should reach around 400 by the end of August, in line with projections.

III- MATIF commodity futures

Rapeseed futures saw three new daily records set during the month, with 1,489 contracts changing hands on 15 July, 1,525 on 21 July, and 1,643 on 29 July. Average daily trade volume for the month was 704 lots, making July 1998 the best month since the contract was launched.

Milling wheat futures also set a record, with 711 lots traded on 16 July. The market has climbed steadily since the contract was launched on 27 March.

Commodities futures continued to do well. Trading was up 91.3% on last month, reflecting the successful move to electronic trading; rapeseed, milling wheat and sugar contracts were all switched to the electronic NSC system on 26 June.

* As a result, contract size is now: - 10 shares for equity options (compared with 100 previously in most cases) - FRF 50 per index point for CAC 40 futures and CAC 40 short-term options (compared with FRF 200).

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