On average, more than 45,000 contracts are now being traded during the late European evening, up from 33,500 in December.PARA_BREAK_SENTINEL_9f8e7d6c

On average, more than 45,000 contracts are now being traded during the late European evening, up from 33,500 in December. Almost half of Eurex' 400 participant firms is active during the extended trading hours on a daily basis.

The importance of Eurex global benchmark products Euro-Bund, Euro-Bobl, Euro-Schatz, Euro-Buxl,plus the DAX and Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 benchmark index products in the US market is clearly reflected by the fact that these products account for the lion's share of traded volumes during the US afternoon.

Evening trading dominated by US and UK Members

Members from the United Kingdom and the United States account for just under 75 per cent of daily trading volumes during extended trading hours. In index futures, the share of these two groups is even higher, with almost 80 percent of index derivatives traded.

Compared to core trading hours, liquidity has remained very high, as evidenced by tight one-tick spreads in the global benchmark products - there is almost no change during extended hours.

Extended hours facilitate quick response to macro-economic events
The longer trading hours have turned out to be particularly beneficial in the event of market movements being driven by key economic data. On these days, Eurex customers make even more active use of the opportunities of being able to trade into the US afternoon.

New services meet strong response

Additional services introduced by Eurex alongside the extension of trading hours have been taken up by numerous market participants. Outsourcing order maintenance is a good example of how flexibility has been enhanced in this way: Participants can have their order inventory managed by an affiliated entity in the US during evening hours. Also, the introduction of a USD margin call - which means that intraday margin calls can be covered in US dollars - has been met with a very good response by Eurex members.

For more information, please refer to the Eurex website www.eurexchange.com or contact: investors@eurexchange.com

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