Trading on London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) Turquoise multilateral trading facility (MTF) increased by more than two thirds over the past year, according to figures released today.
In its pre-close period update, the markets operator revealed broadly strong performance in equities and clearing services, but derivatives volumes were down sharply.
Total value traded on pan-European venue Turquoise reached €285.4 billion in the five months to 31 August, up 67% from €170.7 billion in the same period of 2012.
The group’s main UK market saw traded value of £441 billion, a more modest increase of 6% compared with last year. Borsa Italiana saw the number of trades on the platform drop by 6%, though the entire equity market in Italy has shrunk since the country introduced a financial transaction tax on equities in March.
However, the group’s derivatives markets both saw a fall in trading volumes. Turquoise saw 7.4 million contracts traded in the five months to 31 August 2013, down 35% on the same period a year ago, while it’s Italian derivatives market IDEM’s contract volumes fell 29% to 12.5 million.
LSEG said the fall in derivatives trading reflected broader trends across Europe.
The group’s LCH.Clearnet activities saw strong growth.
SwapClear notional cleared value of interest rate swaps reached US$205.1 trillion, up 29% on the same five-month period in 2012, while membership of SwapClear increased by 46% to 98.
CDSClear saw a big jump in notional cleared value of credit default swaps, as did its FX clearing service ForexClear, up 450% and 143% respectively. The group put the growth down to new product offerings and organic growth of its clearing business.
Commenting on SwapClear’s development, LSEG’s group chief executive, Xavier Rolet, said: “We have seen exiting growth from SwapClear, as it continues to develop its interest rate swap clearing business in the US and elsewhere.”