Monthly Report - January 2009

A total of 18.5 million equity trades were carried out across the electronic order books of the London Stock Exchange Group during January 2009, with a combined value of £129.8 billion (€146.7 billion).  The average daily number of trades was 881,609; this was 14 per cent ahead of the average 772,246 trades per day recorded in December 2008, but down by 30 per cent on January 2008, an extremely strong comparator.  The average daily value traded during the month was £6.2 billion (€7.0 billion).  This was up on December, but represents a decrease of 60 per cent compared to the record set in January 2008, when the average levels of the FTSE100 and MIB indices were 29 per cent and 45 per cent higher respectively.

UK Order Book

The UK order book saw a total of 13.3 million trades during the month, with a combined value of £90.8 billion (€103.1 billion).  The average daily number of trades was 632,517, compared with the previous January’s 883,793, while the average daily value traded was £4.3 billion (€4.9 billion), a decrease of 58 per cent compared with the record levels in January 2008.

Italian Order Book

There were 4.5 million trades in Italian equities during the month, and the total value traded was €36.1 billion (£32.4 billion).  The average daily number of trades was 211,987, and the average daily value traded was €1.7 billion (£1.5 billion), down 36 and 69 per cent respectively on the previous year.

International Order Book

There were 779,216 electronic trades in international equities across the two exchanges’ markets in January, with a combined value of £6.6 billion (€7.4 billion).  The average daily number of trades was 37,106, down 14 per cent on the previous year, and the average daily value traded decreased 68 per cent year on year to £312.6 million (€353.7 million).

ETFs and ETCs

Growth in ETF and ETC trading remained good, with the average daily number of trades up two per cent on January 2008 to 9,069, while the average daily value traded increased nine per cent to £276.8 million (€311.2 million).  The total number of trades during the month reached 190,449, and the total value traded reached £5.8 billion (€6.5 billion).

Derivatives

In January, 7.5 million contracts were traded on EDX London and IDEM, with a combined notional value of £84.7 billion (€94.3 billion).  The average daily number of contracts traded was down seven per cent compared with the previous January to 358,915, while the notional value traded decreased 39 per cent to a daily average of £4.0 billion (€4.5 billion).

Additional Information:
This release uses only electronic trading data; trades that are reported to the either London Stock Exchange or Borsa Italiana under their rules but executed away from their electronic order books are not included.

There were 21 trading days on the London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana, one fewer than January 2008.

During January, the average daily number of trades on SETS – covering all equity based order book trading on the London Stock Exchange was 659,409, down 28 per cent on January 2008.  The average daily value traded was £4.7 billion, reflecting a decrease of 58 per cent on the record set in January 2008.

Primary market data for January will be available on the websites of London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana later in the month.

The January 2009 value traded figures use a €:£ exchange rate of 1.1137. The exchange rate used for January 2008 was 1.3374.

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