Global equity trading volumes rise 36% in 1st half 2015

July 29, 2015

The World Federation of Exchanges has today published its Market Highlights Report for the first semester of 2015.

Among the key trends were:

• Value of worldwide share trading rose 36% to 59 trillion USD in H1 2015 from the second-half of 2014 (+58% year on year).
• Mainland China share trading volumes rose 166% in H1 2015 from H2 2014
• Asia Pacific minus mainland China volumes rose 12%, EMEA volumes were up 11% and the Americas region saw a 1% increase (U.S. plus 2%, remainder minus 17%)
• Number of trades also rose 36% from the second half of 2014 (+67% year on year)
• Global Market Capitalization rose 8% to 73 trillion USD from the second-half of 2014 (+6% year on year). Asian exchanges saw a strong climb in market capitalization, with mainland China increasing 60%, Japan 13%, HK 16% and Korea 10%.
• Strong increase in IPOs and in Investment flows. The number of IPOs increased by 19% year on year while total investment flows increased by 42% year on year.
• Exchange Traded Derivatives (ETD) volumes increased by 3.5% compared with the end of 2014, mainly driven by commodity and currency derivatives.

"World exchanges saw a continued and significant climb in trading volumes through the first half of this year. Even excluding the boost afforded the headline numbers by China, there was still a respectable 5% increase in global trading volumes," said WFE CEO Nandini Sukumar. "The clear takeaway message from these data is that exchanges are continuing to play a vital role in financing the real economy, with IPO activity increasing 19% and investment flows 42% year on year," Sukumar added.

"The increase in global equity trading volumes was driven by rapid growth in share trading in mainland China (+166%)," said Gregoire Naacke, WFE Senior Analyst. "A number of special factors explain the recent developments in the Chinese markets, including: strong participation by retail investors, strong market performance and high volatility. We wait to see what impact more recent developments will have on market volumes going forward," Naacke added.

Click here for the full report.

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