Monthly Report - February 2009

A total of 17.5 million equity trades with a combined value of £119.2 billion (€133.5 billion) were carried out across the electronic order books of the London Stock Exchange Group during February 2009.  The average daily number of trades was 874,593, 13 per cent lower than during February 2008, while the average daily value traded was £6.0 billion (€6.7billion), a decrease of 52 per cent on the same month last year. 

Despite challenging market conditions, trading in ETFs and ETCs continued to grow during February, increasing 38 per cent year on year in terms of both the average daily number of trades and value traded.  The average daily number of contracts traded on the EDX London and IDEM derivatives markets also increased, up 12 per cent year on year.

UK Order Book
An average 622,980 trades in UK equities were carried out on the order book each day during February, a decrease of ten per cent compared with the previous February.  The average daily value traded decreased by 51 per cent to £4.0 billion (€4.5 billion), partly reflecting the 31 per cent fall in the average value of the FTSE100 compared with the same month last year.

Italian Order Book
On the Italian order book the average daily number of equity trades was 212,414 during February, a decrease of 25 per cent on February last year.  The average daily value traded was €1.8 billion (£1.6 billion) a decrease of 59 per cent year on year, which reflects a decline of 47 per cent in the average value of the MIB index compared with February last year. 

International Order Book
During the month, an average 39,199 electronic trades were carried out in international equities across the Group each day, an increase of six per cent compared with February 2008.  The average daily value traded was £337.5 million (€377.9 million), down 60 per cent year on year.

ETFs and ETCs
Trading in ETFs and ETCs continued to grow.  The average daily number of electronic trades in ETFs and ETCs increased 38 per cent on the previous February to 9,743.  The average daily value traded was also up 38 per cent year on year to £310.8 million (€348.0 million).

Derivatives
The average daily number of contracts traded across EDX London and IDEM increased 12 per cent year on year to 398,961.  However, the average notional value traded each day declined 47 per cent compared with last February to £3.4 billion (€3.8 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 20 trading days on the London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana, one fewer than in February 2008.
During February, the average daily number of trades on SETS – covering all equity based order book trading on the London Stock Exchange was 651,489, down nine per cent on February 2008.  The average daily value traded was £4.4 billion, a decrease of 51 per cent compared with February 2008.
Primary market data for February will be available on the websites of London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana later in the month.
The February 2009 value traded figures use a € per £ exchange rate of 1.1197. The exchange rate used for February 2008 was 1.3068.

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