European trading volumes dropped by over €65 billion month-on-month in June, to record their second lowest total so far this year.
The total value of trading across all European exchanges and multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) was €799 billion in June, down from €865 billion in May, according to data from Thomson Reuters' Equity Market Share Reporter. The lowest month for trading turnover this year was €703 billion recorded in April 2010.
One-third of the €65 billion fall in equity trading came in German stocks, where value traded was €148.5 billion in June, compared to €168.63 billion in May.
Trading on displayed pan-European MTFs, such as Chi-X Europe, BATS Europe and London Stock Exchange-owned Turquoise, declined to €206 billion in June, from €215.5 billion in May. The proportion of European equity trading conducted on MTFs was around 25% in May and June, almost identical to the share of trading held by MTFs at the start of the year.
Dark MTFs, which include broker-operated venues such as Nomura's NX dark pool and UBS MTF, fell slightly to €21 billion from €21.2 billion in May. Dark MTFs accounted for 2.6% of overall European liquidity in June, just higher than the 2.4% recorded in May.
US dark drop
According to figures from US brokerage Rosenblatt Securities, US dark trading also slumped in May, to 12.37% of consolidated US equity order volume, from 13.2% – an all-time record for US dark pools – in April.
Only five out of the 18 dark pools tracked by Rosenblatt – Citi Match, Goldman Sachs' Sigma X, ITG POSIT, Knight Link and LeveL ATS – recorded gains in average daily volume traded in May.
The Rosenblatt reports estimates Citi's 1:10 reverse split of its stock on Friday 6 May, which reduced the number of outstanding shares by a factor of 10 while increasing the stock price by the same multiple, was responsible for much of the drop in the proportion overall US trading transacted in dark pools during the month.