17.6 million electronic equity trades in March

In March, 17.6 million equity trades were carried out across London Stock Exchange Group’s electronic order books, with a combined value of £162 billion (€179 billion) up 3 per cent on March 2009. The average daily number of trades was 766,229, 28 per cent lower than March 2009.  Average daily value traded was £7.0 billion (€7.8 billion) down two per cent on last year,

UK Cash Equities
The average daily value traded on the UK equity order book was £4.1 billion (€4.6 billion) a decrease of 15 per cent year on year, while the average daily number of trades was down 34 per cent at 498,299.

Italian Cash Equities
During March, the average daily number of trades in Italian equities was 214,760, down 20 per cent on the same month last year. The average daily value traded during the month was up 19 per cent at €2.4billion (£2.2 billion).

International Cash Equities
Total value traded in International equities increased 67 per cent on March 2009 to £16.9 billion, whilst the average daily value traded was up 60 per cent year on year, totalling £737 million (€817 million). The average daily number of trades was 53,170 also up 12 per cent on last March.

ETFs and ETCs
Trading in ETFs and ETCs saw the average daily number of trades up 30 per cent year on year, totalling 14,971. The average daily value traded was up nine per cent to £382 million (€424 million).

Derivatives
The average daily number of contracts traded on the Group’s derivatives markets, EDX London and IDEM, was down 39 per cent on March 2009. The average daily notional value traded was £3.3 billion, (€3.6 billion) down 16 per cent.
On IDEM, 9 short term stock futures on FTSE Italia MID CAP underlyings were made available from 22 March 2010. These were introduced to support further volume growth of stock futures contracts in 2010 and to satisfy clients’ needs for a broadening in the range of underlyings listed on IDEM.
Stock futures are also now available for all constituents of the FTSE MIB index with the introduction of 3 new stock futures which were listed on the 22 March 2010.

Fixed income
Trading on the MTS Cash markets continued to perform strongly, with the average daily value traded during the month up by 60 per cent year on year at €11 billion (£9.9 billion). On the MTS Repo market, the average term adjusted daily value traded increased by 74 per cent year on year to €229.8 billion (£207.2 billion).
The average daily value traded during March on the Group’s retail bond markets was €931 million (£840 million) down three per cent on the same month last year. The average daily number of trades was in line with March last year at 15,014.

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For further information, please contact:
Lauren Crawley-Moore +44 (0)20 7797 1222

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 23 trading days on the London Stock Exchange and on Borsa Italiana during March 2010, one more than last year.
During March, the average daily number of trades on SETS – covering all equity based order book trading on the London Stock Exchange – was 535,482 down 32 per cent on March 2009.  The average daily value traded was £4.8 billion, a decrease of 10 per cent year on year.
Primary market data for March will be available on the websites of London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana later in the month.
The March 2010 value traded figures use a € per £ exchange rate of 1.11.
The exchange rate used for March 2009 was 1.11.