Chi-X, a pan-European equity multilateral trading facility, recorded a drop in trading activity during the last quarter of 2008, citing tough market conditions.
Although the number of trades increased 12% against Q3 2008, total share volume decreased 7% and turnover fell 17% to €205,463,028,257.
Chi-X reported strong price improvement performance in the Q4 period. During December 2008, 90% of trades were executed at or better than the primary market spread with an average price improvement of 3.59 basis points, the highest average cost saving on the platform in 2008.
The platform continued to perform strongest in the UK blue-chip market, peaking at 22.74% market share of FTSE 100 stocks on 2 October. It also reached19.12% of trading in Dutch AEX 25 stocks and over 15% for French CAC 40 and FTSE 250 stocks.
“The final quarter of last year was challenging,” noted Peter Randall, CEO, Chi-X Europe. “We have been encouraged to see that despite the market downturn, our market shares in the FTSE 100, AEX 25, FTSE 250, CAC 40, DAX 30 and ETFs have continued to hold strong at over 10%.”
Separately, Chi-X will continue its rollout of Spanish stocks on Thursday, adding five more stocks from the IBEX 35 index. From 15 January, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Banco Santande, Iberdrola, Repsol and Union Fenosa will be added alongside Telefonica, the only Spanish stock currently available on the platform. The remaining constituents of the IBEX 35 will be added on 22 January.