NYSE, LSE equity trade falls in Dec

NYSE Euronext, operator of the largest US stock market and four European bourses, and London Stock Exchange (LSE) Group Plc, the UK’s largest equity market, reported declining equity trading as volatility abated and rivals took market share.

The number of equity trades in December on LSE’s electronic system fell to 13.3 million from 15.9 million in the comparable year-ago period, while the value of stock trades dropped to £108.4 billion ($174 billion) from £114.4 billion, the London-based exchange said. The average daily number of trades fell 18 per cent to 640,169 and the average daily value traded dropped six per cent to £5.2 billion, LSE said.

New York-based NYSE Euronext, which owns stock exchanges in Paris, Lisbon, Brussels and Amsterdam after its purchase of Euronext NV, said average daily volume in Europe fell 9.1 per cent to 1.1 million transactions. In the US, the New York Stock Exchange matched 36.5 per cent of stocks listed on its market, down from 43.4 per cent in December 2008, the exchange said in a separate statement.

LSE, NYSE and other traditional exchanges are losing market share to new rivals. LSE, which has lost more than 60 per cent of trading in FTSE 100 Index stocks to so-called multilateral trading facilities including Turquoise, Bats Europe and Chi-X Europe, agreed to buy Turquoise last month. In the US, NYSE is grappling with Direct Edge Holdings LLC and Missouri-based Bats Global Markets in addition to Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.

NYSE, which owns the London-based Liffe derivatives market, Europe’s second-largest, said average daily volume in December for European derivatives jumped 40.8 per cent to 4 million from the comparable year-ago period, buoyed by its Bclear trade administration product. Liffe traded 2.9 million contracts and Bclear processed 1.1 million contracts, the exchange said.