European equity trading volume dipped slightly in February after booming in January but remain well ahead of last year, according to figures from Thomson Reuters Equity Market Share Reporter.
Total turnover on European exchanges and multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) reached €811 billion last month, 17% higher than the €693.7 billion seen in February 2013.
This represents the highest February trading volume since 2011, which saw market turnover hit €840 billion.
Equity trading was down 10.5% between January and February, though the first month of 2014 was the best January since the financial crisis in 2008.
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) gained ground last month, increasing its market share to 13.29% from 11.37% in the previous month, edging ahead of Deutsche Börse’s Xetra trading system on 11.45%, down from 12.36% in January.
LSE-owned Turquoise also saw a healthy increase in market share, up from 7.5% to 7.86% month-on-month. However, the LSE Group’s Italian exchange fared less well, dropping from 7.52% to 6.79% over the same period.
Dark trading volumes across exchanges and MTFs also fell back during February, down 12.5% from €56.7 billion to €49.6 billion, marking a bigger decrease than in the broader equity market. However, the huge increase in popularity of dark trading in recent years means this is still the third highest figure on record and does not include trading on broker crossing networks.
UBS MTF continues to lead among individual dark order books with a 20.1% share of the market, though this is lower than the 21.8% seen in January. Across its two order books, BATS Chi-X Europe took a 30% share of dark trading, down from 31.6% in the first month of the year.
ITG’s POSIT dark pool posted major gains, increasing market share between January and February from 12.92% to 13.65%. However, Liquidnet was the biggest mover, increasing market share from 5.3% to 6.57% over the period.