Euronext
is the first cross-border European exchange organisation, created in September
2000 by the merger of the exchanges in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. 2002
saw the Portuguese exchange, Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa e Porto (BVLP),
merge with Euronext and the international derivatives exchange, LIFFE, join
the Euronext group. All Euronext derivative products are now grouped under
the Euronext.liffe umbrella.
Euronext
manages both regulated and unregulated markets. It offers a complete and
varied range of services encompassing all exchange activities, including
listing of financial instruments, trading in securities and derivatives,
clearing, settlement and custody of securities, data dissemination and IT
support.
Euronext
now offers a single trading platform (NSC) with single market rules and
a single clearing platform (Clearing 21®) for the cash markets of its three
founding countries - Belgium, France and the Netherlands - and Portugal
will also migrate to the same platforms. The next major step will be to
extend the LIFFE CONNECTTM derivatives trading system (already used in London)
and Euronext's clearing system Clearing 21® further across the derivative
markets. This will start with the switch of the Belgian and French derivative
markets to LIFFE CONNECT™ in March and April 2003, respectively. LIFFE CONNECT™
was selected in January 2003 by the Chicago Board of Trade, one of the two
leading US derivatives markets, to replace its existing system at the end
of 2003.
At
end December 2002, 1,484 companies were listed on Euronext regulated markets,
representing a market capitalisation of €1,477 billion. Euronext was Europe's
largest equity market by value of trades (central electronic order book)
in 2002, with a daily average reaching €6.2 billion in 2002. Euronext also
maintains its number-one position in Europe for trackers (exchange-traded
funds), with the value of transactions averaging €129 million a day, 94.4%
more than in 2001, while the number of trades in 2002, surged 106% to nearly
363,000. Euronext.liffe is the world's second largest derivatives market,
by both the number of contracts traded and the value of trades. Trading
volume on Euronext.liffe amounted to nearly 700 million futures and options
in 2002, up 13% on 2001.
Lead
Sponsor:
Media
Partners
For
more information please contact Pamela O'Brien at (212) 661-7566, email
obrien@capitallink.com
