Spanish exchange-traded equity derivatives volumes soar

Growth in equity derivatives trading, especially single-stock futures, helped Madrid-based mF Group post a 22.7%year-on-year increase in the number of contracts traded for the first quarter of 2003. The group is comprised of the three leading Spanish exchanges - derivatives exchange, Meff; electronic trading platform for Spanish government debt, Senaf; and the market for trading Spanish corporate debt, AIAF.

The value of contracts traded in the first quarter hit €518 billion, with the value of contracts in March growing 29.4% year-on-year to total €188 billion.

Meff saw contracts traded increase 13.5% over March 2002 to 6.3 million. There was a notable increase in single-stock futures trading activity with 2.7 million contracts traded, a rise of 57.8% over the previous year. Volumes of Ibex 35 futures also saw strong growth, up 22.1% over the previous month to a total of 311,419 contracts.

Meff launched a programme to increase liquidity in equity derivatives around the turn of the year. The number of open positions in futures and options on Meff stood at 3.7 million contracts at the end of March.

Trading in fixed-income products totalled €93.6 billion, with €65.8 billion of public debt traded on Senaf and €27.8 billion in corporate debt traded on AIAF. New corporate debt issues were up 48% year-on-year, hitting €16.3 billion in March.

The outstanding balance of Spanish corporate debt on AIAF rose to €141.6 billion at the end of the quarter.