As trading volumes continue to register a fraction of years past, BATS Chi-X Europe has been unable to hold on to their market share.
The recently merged multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) have sustained decreasing lit and dark market share figures since May, with August numbers showing just 22.3%, down from 24.1% in May, according to data from Thomson Reuters Equity Market Share Reporter.
Exchange group BATS Global Markets completed a US$300 million takeover of rival Chi-X Europe and merged the trading venues in the first half of 2012 to create a viable alternative to the region's dominant stock markets. But in the face of dramatically lower volumes, both venues haven’t been able to hold their market share.
After last August's uncharacteristically high volumes (€1.14 trillion), last month's total figures were barely half, at €580 billion, down even compared with €668 billion in August 2010.
Trading on MTFs generally has dropped steadily since May, reaching just €160 billion, under half of last August’s €347 billion, while trading on incumbent exchanges reached €218 billion last month.
August also saw the continued rise of dark trading venue UBS MTF, which remained the largest dark pool for the third consecutive month, ahead of BATS Chi-X Europe's CXE dark book.
CXE began the year posting 21.89% market share of dark trading in January, compared to UBS MTF’s 14.5%. But August figures showed UBS leading 21.4% to CXE's 20.3%.
Dark trading on MTFs hit €24 billion for the month, close to the €27 billion traded in August 2011, while trading in the lit market reached €479 billion, less than half of the €1 trillion seen in August 2011.