Euronext reports July trading volume down 16% driven by equities

The European exchange group reported trading activity of 11.4 million contracts last month compared with 13.6 million contracts in the same period last year across commodity and equity derivatives.

While commodity derivatives trading volumes rose 1.6% on July last year to 2.7 million lots, the group's larger equity derivatives trading book fell 20.7% year-on-year to 8.6 million contracts in July.

Within that, Euronext's index derivatives volumes dropped 34.7% year-on-year to 3.24 million lots while single stock derivatives were down 9% on the same period last year to 5.4 million contracts.

Index options were slower, with a 43.1% fall in trading compared to July last year to 1.36 million contracts. In individual equity, trading in futures decreased 96% year-on-year to 13,915 lots in July, from 386,210 lots in the same month last year.

In Euronext's commodities, futures trading volume rose 3.7% year-on-year as options trading fell 36.9% in July. The July month ADV for commodity futures rose 20.9% month-on-month to 1.16 million contracts.

The combined equity and commodities derivatives open interest (OI) rose 1% in July to 23.9 million lots, compared to 23.6 million lots in the same period last year. Month-on-month OI increased 1.6 million lots or 7.2% on June this year.

Eurex, a competitor to Euronext in derivatives segment, reported a 10% decline in futures and options trading volume in July, recording 138.9 million contracts traded last month.

The German exchange’s over-the-counter derivatives clearing segment performed better, with interest rate swap clearing up 26% last month to a notional outstanding of €45.8bn (£40bn).