European equity trading volumes experienced a slight increase in May, with most major markets growing turnover last month.
According to data from Thomson Reuters, overall trading volumes grew 3.9% from €710.2 billion in April, to €738.6 billion in May. But May 2012’s total is still down 14% on last year’s total of €865.2 billion for the corresponding month.
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) enjoyed an 11.2% month-on-month rise to €93.3 billion from €83.87 billion the previous month. Other European exchanges did not fare as well, with Deutsche Börse staying flat at €93 billion and NYSE Euronext, operator of markets in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Lisbon declined by 2.2% in May to €114.6 billion.
The region’s largest market was BATS Chi-X Europe, with the dual multilateral trading facility (MTF) grabbing €177.58 billion, or 24.1% worth of volumes. Second-placed Deutsche Börse traded 12.1% of European volumes in May.
Europe’s second largest MTF, the LSE-owned Turquoise, traded €37.3 billion in May, a 4% increase on April’s total of €35.7 billion.
Trading on dark MTFs rose by 8.13% to €27.79 billion.
Chi-Delta, one of the dark pools operated by BATS Chi-X Europe, had a 21.3% of dark MTF trading, followed by UBS MTF, which grew its market share to 20.6% from 16.1% in April. BLINK, the newest dark MTF launched by CA Cheuvreux, traded €77.9 million accounting for 0.28% dark market share.