1.1 million electronic equity trades per day

The average daily number of order book trades on the cash markets of Borsa Italiana and the London Stock Exchange increased 69 per cent on the same month last year to a record 1.1 million during November. The average daily value traded also rose, up 50 per cent to £15.1 billion (€21.2 billion). During the month, the total number of order book trades reached 23.2 million and the total value traded was £332.8 billion (€465.8 billion).

During the eleven months to the end of November 2007, the average daily number of electronic order book trades on the cash markets of the two exchanges was 837,053, an increase of 56 per cent on the same period during 2006. Meanwhile, the average daily value traded on the exchanges’ cash markets during the same period was £12.9 billion (€18.9 billion), up 42 per cent on the average of £9.1 billion (€13.3 billion) in the first eleven months of 2006.

So far this year, the total number of order book trades in UK equities has increased 76 per cent to 122.9 million, while the value traded has risen 42 per cent to £1.9 trillion.

All of the top twenty busiest days on the UK order book have now occurred since the introduction of the new TradElect trading system in June. Following additional capacity and latency upgrades at the start of the month, November alone accounted for half of the top twenty days.

Based on trading between January and November 2007, the average number of trades in Italian equities each day has been 292,961 per day, an increase of 27 per cent over the same period last year. At the same time, the average value traded each day has been €6.4 billion (£4.3 billion), up 41 per cent on the first eleven months of 2006.

The average daily number of international trades during the month was 25,664, up 162 per cent on the average for November 2006. The average daily value traded was £720.6 million, up 101 per cent on November last year.

Separately, there were 395,608 contracts traded in securitised derivatives (including covered warrants and certificates) during the month. The total value traded in securitised derivatives was £3.5 billion (€4.9 billion). In the first eleven months of the year, the total number of contracts traded has risen 13 per cent to 4.7 million, while the value has increased 37 per cent to £58.1 billion (€85.4 billion).

There were 22 trading days on both exchanges’ markets during November 2007. So far this year, there have been 234 trading days on the London Stock Exchange, one more than during the same period in 2006, while the number of trading days on Borsa Italiana has been the same as the previous year at 235.

During November, the average daily number of trades on SETS – covering all equity based order book trading on the London Stock Exchange – was 748,113. This was an increase of 114 per cent on November 2006, and ahead of the previous SETS record of 688,391 trades per day reached during August 2007. The average daily value traded on SETS during the month was £10.5 billion, an increase of 63 per cent on November 2006.

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

The November 2007 value traded figures use a €:£ exchange rate of 1.399. The exchange rate used for November 2006 was 1.483. The total value traded year to date figures use an average exchange rate for each month.

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