World Federation of Exchanges Publishes 2013 Global Market Highlights

January 28, 2014

The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), now headquartered in London, announced today the publication of its annual survey of global markets. The WFE found that for the second consecutive year, the global market capitalization of WFE members has increased, rising 17.4% compared to the 2012 figure of 15.1%. The rise in global market capitalization had a significant effect on Asia Pacific, where trading volumes surged by 47% in local currency terms; however, the Americas and EAME were not as affected, increasing trading volume by only 1%. 

"We are pleased that our annual compilation of Global Market Statistics provides an objective representation of overall, on-exchange trading performance worldwide," explains Hüseyin Erkan, CEO of the WFE. "Our member exchanges have allowed us to track a wide range of data, which permits us to present a detailed picture of a number of different exchange activities."

Specific 2013 highlights from WFE are as follows:

Equity Markets 

In 2013, the global market capitalization continued to increase significantly with a 17.4% growth rate of over US $64 trillion. International markets have not seen this level of market capitalization since the first half of 2008. While the Americas and EAME regions both experienced a growth rate of 22%, the increase was significantly less pronounced in the Asia-Pacific region (+7%). Global average value of trades rose 7% in 2013. After two years of a significant decrease, in 2013 the total number of IPOs increased by 2%, and investment flows through IPOs increased 34%.

Derivatives 

The overall number of derivatives traded on-exchange rose by 6.4% last year. Further details of the derivatives landscape will be included in the annual WFE/IOMA Study of derivatives markets, to be released by the end of first quarter 2014. After declining volumes in 2012, trading in most derivatives classes grew in 2013. Equity derivatives (+4.5%, excluding Kospi 200 options due to size changing effect), interest rate derivatives (+1.5%) and currency derivatives (+3.7%) all saw an uptick, while commodity derivatives (+20.5%) experienced the highest increase. 

Bonds, ETFs and Securitized Derivatives 

Bond trading continued to decline in 2013 (-15.2%), driven by the EAME region, where 86% of the exchange traded volumes are concentrated. ETF turnover value recovered in 2013, increasing 11.4%, after the sharp decrease in 2012. This was mainly due to U.S. performance, which represents 87% of the WFE's total ETF turnover. Securitized derivatives listings continued to grow significantly (+12.5%), but overall volumes decreased by 3.1%. The WFE remains committed to practice of issuing reliable and comparable markets statistics provided by member exchanges. In addition to its annual Global Market Highlights, the WFE routinely posts a wide range of market data to its web site.

Click here for the full report.

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