LSE, BORSA ITALIANA REPORT OVERALL YEAR-OVER-YEAR INCREASE IN ELECTRONIC EQUITY TRADING

Posted April 7, 2008

LONDON -- Is business booming because of their merger or due to market volatility? The number of electronic equity trades on the London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana during March averaged 1.1 million daily, up 33 percent over the daily average in March 2007.

The total number of trades on these exchanges in March 2008 was 21.2 million. The average combined daily value traded also increased, up one percent to £13.2 billion (€16.6 billion).

The total number of equity trades for the first calendar quarter of 2008 was up 46 percent to 70 million compared to the same period in 2007. The total value traded in the first quarter was £850 billion (€1.1 trillion), an increase of 14 percent.

For last month, the average daily number of trades on the UK order book was 767,195, up 56 percent on March 2007, a record month at the time. The total number of electronic equity trades for the month was 14.6 million. The average daily value traded was £8.7 billion (€11 billion), up 7 percent.

Last month, the average daily number of trades in Italian equities was 304,019, 2 percent less than last year’s record but an increase of 8 percent on last month. The average daily value traded was €4.7 billion (£3.7 billion) during March 2008; like the number of trades, this was down on last March but up on the previous month. The total number of trades on the order book during March 2008 was 5.8 million and the total value traded was €88.5 billion (£70.4 billion).