Transatlantic exchange group NYSE Euronext has reported that average daily trading volumes across its European cash equities markets in May 2009 were 1.5 million transactions – 14.6% up on May 2008. April 2009’s ADV of 1.6 million transactions was a 15.5% increase over the previous April.
Volume results at other European exchanges paint a similar picture. In the entire month of May 2009, 14.7 million transactions were executed on Xetra, the electronic trading system of German exchange group Deutsche Börse, a 2.2% increase over the 14.4 million transactions traded in May 2008. The London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) reported an average daily trading volume of 1 million in May, a 14% year-on-year increase.
However, while European exchanges’ traded volumes are up on last year, turnover is still down, perhaps reflecting decreasing order sizes across Europe resulting from a rise in the popularity of algorithmic and high-frequency trading. Deutsche Börse’s Xetra traded
€89.8 billion in May 2009, a 38% drop from the €144.8 billion traded the previous May. Traded value of UK equities on the LSE fell to €95.2 million in May 2009 from €176.4 million in May 2008.
Exchanges’ numbers reflect the pan-European trend. According to figures from data vendor Thomson Reuters’ European Market Share Reporter Service, total trade volumes across Europe in May 2009, including over-the-counter transactions, were 211.8 billion, up from 204.5 billion in May 2008. However, May 2009’s turnover of €1.33 trillion is less than half of May 2008’s turnover of €2.69 trillion.
Despite this, the Thomson Reuters numbers show that pan-European turnover has been gradually recovering month on month from a low of 986.6 billion in December 2008. The LSE’s numbers support this. Its average daily value for May was €9.2 billion, a 9% increase over April’s value.