European trading venues enjoyed another strong month of trading activity in February, with the second-highest turnover since the mass sell-off that hit the market in autumn 2008.
According to the latest figures from data vendor Thomson Reuters, total value traded in February across exchanges and dark and lit multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) was €771.5 billion in February, compared to €695.3 billion in January. Last month’s trading was also 43.3% higher than February 2009’s total of €538.2 billion.
Since the financial crisis that caused a huge upsurge of trading volumes to over €1.2 trillion in both September and October 2008, only October 2009 (€817 billion) has been higher in terms of value traded than last month. Number of shares traded in February 2010 also increased to 113.8 billion, from 98.6 billion in January.
The rise was generally consistent across all trading venues, with some MTFs – including Chi-X Europe, BATS Europe, NYSE Arca Europe and Nordic-only MTF Burgundy – experiencing their highest ever monthly turnovers.
Chi-X Europe, the continent’s largest MTF, recorded an 11% month-on-month increase in value traded to €123.7 billion, beating its previous all-time high of €111.2 billion set last month, while BATS Europe traded a record €34.1 billion, beating last month’s best of €29.06 billion. NYSE Arca Europe, which has so far struggled to gain traction since its launch in March 2009, also recorded a new all-time high of €1.7 billion in February, compared to €1.19 billion in January, and Burgundy, which has so far had most success in Swedish blue-chip stocks, traded €966 million in February.
Exchanges also enjoyed strong turnover growth. Deutsche Börse traded €96.6 billion in February 2010, a 25.7% increase on February 2009, and €4 billion more than January 2010, the London Stock Exchange traded €104.06 billion last month compared to €92.1 billion in January and a 12.2% year-on-year increase and NYSE Euronext in Paris traded €89.7 billion, a 23.2% year-on-year increase and just under €14 billion more than January.
While growth in trading volumes and values usually goes hand in hand with rises in index values, this was not true across the board in February. While the UK’s FTSE 100 index started February at 5247.40 and ended the month at 5,354.50, the Euro STOXX 50, a pan-European blue chip index, fell to 2728.47 at the end of February from 2792.29 at the start of the month.