London Stock Exchange Group (LSE.L) sits at the heart of the world’s financial community, offering international business unrivalled access to Europe’s capital markets. In April a total of 21.9 million trades were carried out across the Group’s electronic equity order books with a combined value of £161.1 billion (€182.4 billion), down 13 per cent on April 2010 (£184.4 billion). The fall in both aggregate and daily volumes may be explained by an unusual holiday pattern in the UK in April 2011.

UK Equities Order Book
During the month, the average daily value traded on the UK order book was £4.4 billion (€5 billion), down 10 per cent year on year; the average daily number of trades increased six per cent to 585,111.

The LSE’S share of trading in the lit UK order book for April was 63.5 per cent.

Italian Equities Order book

On the Italian order book, the average daily number of trades was 271,738, down two per cent on the same month last year, whilst the average daily value traded on the order book decreased 13 per cent year on year to €3.3 billion (£2.9 billion).

Turquoise Cash Equities

The average daily value traded on the Turquoise integrated book in April was €1.2 billion (£1 billion) up 16 per cent on the same month last year. The average daily number of trades was up 38 per cent at 267,754.

On the dark mid-point book, Turquoise traded an average daily value of €227 million (£200 million), up 77 per cent on April 2010. There were a total of 29,578 trades, an increase of over 45 per cent year on year.

Turquoise’s total share of European order book trading for March was 4.4 per cent.

Derivatives
On the Group’s derivatives platforms, the total number of contracts traded was 8,066,635, up 19 per cent compared with April 2010.

Exchange Traded Products

Total value traded in Exchange Traded Products across the Group’s order books in April was down three per cent year on year to £9.3 billion (€10.5 billion). The total number of trades was down 14 per cent reaching 321,845.

Fixed income

The average daily value traded on the MTS Cash markets during the month was up 13 per cent year on year at €12.2 billion (£10.8 billion). On the MTS Repo market, the average term adjusted daily value traded increased by two per cent year on year to €259.68 billion (£229.2 billion).

The average daily value traded on the Group’s retail bond markets was €707 million (£625 million), down 27 per cent on the same month last year. The average daily number of trades was down nine percent at 13,904.