Press releases 2009

19.7 million equity trades were carried out across London Stock Exchange Group’s electronic order books during October, an increase of eight per cent on the previous month.  The total equity value traded across the Group during the month was £173.4 billion (€189.4 billion).

Significant volatility during October 2008, which led to record volumes across the Group’s equity markets last year, affected year on year comparisons.  Nevertheless, trading in ETFs, ETCs, fixed income and derivatives products showed strong growth in October. ETF and ETC trading set new records, with the average daily number of ETF and ETC trades up 84 per cent on last year. The average daily value traded on the MTS cash markets increased 76 per cent year on year, while EDX London also performed strongly, seeing its second busiest month ever for number of contracts traded.

UK Cash Equities

The average daily value traded on the UK order book was £4.2 billion (€4.6 billion), seven per cent higher than the previous month but a decrease of 44 per cent year on year. The total value traded was £92.9 billion (€101.5 billion).

There was a six per cent month on month increase in the average daily number of trades in UK equities, with 566,377 trades per day, a decrease of 39 per cent year on year. The total number of UK equity trades during the month was 12.5 million.

Italian Cash Equities

On the Italian equity order book, the average daily number of trades in Italian equities was 270,340, up 14 per cent on the previous month, though down 11 per cent on last October. The average daily value traded remained flat year on year at €3.2 billion (£2.9 billion).

The total number of trades was 5.9 million and the total value traded was €69.4 billion (£63.6 billion).

International Cash Equities

The average daily value traded in international stocks on the Group’s equity order books was up 11 per cent year on year, totalling £770 million (€841 million), 18 per cent ahead of the average for the previous month.  The average daily number of trades was 57,561, an increase of eight per cent on the previous month and up five per cent on last October.

ETFs and ETCs

It was a record month for trading in ETFs and ETCs across the Group; the number of trades reached 381,581, a 76 per cent increase on the same month last year, while the total value traded was up 34 per cent year on year to £9.9 billion (€10.8 billion).  The average daily number of trades rose 84 per cent year on year to 17,345, while the average daily value traded was up by 40 per cent to £448 million (€490 million).

Derivatives

The average daily number of contracts traded on the Group’s derivatives markets, EDX London and IDEM, was up 17 per cent on last year at 467,292.  The average daily notional value traded was £4.5 billion (€4.9 billion), 20 per cent lower than the same month last year.

EDX London enjoyed another strong performance during October, recording its second busiest month ever, with 7.0 million contracts traded across its Russian and Scandinavian products, including a record 4.8 million Russian stock options, 700,000

contracts more than the previous record, set last month.  Trading in the FTSE Russia IOB Index grew for the fourth consecutive month, with a record 15,806 contracts traded, over three times as many as the previous record of 4,261, set in March 2007.

Fixed income

Trading on the MTS Cash markets remained strong, with the average daily value traded up by 76 per cent year on year at €10.7 billion (£9.8 billion), while on the MTS Repo market the average term adjusted daily value traded increased by 81 per cent year on year to €177.9 billion (£162.9 billion).

On MOT, Borsa Italiana’s retail fixed income market, the average daily value traded was €868 million (£795 million), a seven per cent month on month increase, while the average daily number of trades was 13,105, a six per cent month on month increase.

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For further information, please contact:

Alastair Fairbrother +44 (0)20 7797 1222

Anna Mascioni +39 02 72426 212  

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 22 trading days on the London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana during October 2009, one fewer than during the previous year.

During October, the average daily number of trades on SETS – covering all equity based order book trading on the London Stock Exchange – was 606,631 down 37 per cent on October 2008.  The average daily value traded was £5.0 billion, a decrease of 40 per cent year on year.

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

The October 2009 value traded figures use a € per £ exchange rate of 1.09. The exchange rate used for October 2008 was 1.27.#

For Derivatives, the values used are notional values while “trades” refer to contracts traded.  Value traded figures for MTS Repo are term-adjusted, and totals for MTS Cash include BondVision.