CME Volume Averaged 10.8 Million Contracts Per Day In March 2009
CHICAGO, April 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, today announced that March volume averaged 10.8 million contracts per day, continuing to trend up from the beginning of the year, though down 30 percent from March 2008. Total volume was 238 million contracts for March, of which 81 percent was traded electronically. Electronic volume averaged 8.8 million contracts per day, down 29 percent from the prior March. First-quarter 2009 volume averaged 10.4 million contracts per day, in line with fourth-quarter 2008 average daily volume, but down 33 percent compared with first-quarter 2008.
Average daily volume cleared through CME ClearPort was 587,000 contracts for the month, up 15 percent compared with March 2008, highlighting market participants' increased interest in the safety and soundness of CME Group's regulated, centrally cleared markets. The PJM daily electricity swap futures contracts, which have an average rate per contract of approximately 10 cents, accounted for approximately 14 percent of the total volume cleared through CME ClearPort in March and approximately 20 percent in first-quarter 2009. Daily volume cleared through CME ClearPort averaged 629,000 contracts a day in first-quarter 2009, up 33 percent from the same period last year.