The Tokyo Financial Exchange has released its numbers for foreign exchange and futures trading on margin transacted through the Click 365 and Kabu Click 365 platforms. The number of FX margin contracts has decreased by 3.1 per cent when compared to last year and by 27.6 per cent when compared to last month, totaling 3,402,708 contracts. On an average daily volumes basis, the figures have decreased to 162,034 contracts.
While the number is substantially lower than in June, the special factors associated with massive Brexit volatility played a big role during the month of July. GBP/JPY and GBP/USD trading has increased by 235 and 180 per cent respectively. Amongst the major gainers during the month has also been the USD/JPY pair, where activity rose 28 per cent.
Tokyo Financial Exchange Key Volumes Metrics, Source: TFX
With the Brexit vote being the main driver behind the rise in GBP trading, the USD/JPY was impacted by the massive swings following the Japanese election and the pledge by Shinzo Abe's government for additional economic stimulus. While fiscally the government is likely to deliver a relatively big package, monetary policy easing has disappointed traders that were bearish on the Japanese yen.
Material declines were seen in trading activity across the euro pairs. Both the EUR/USD and the EUR/JPY have seen declines of 71 and 31 per cent respectively.
Looking at the margin index futures Trading Platform Kabu Click 365, we are seeing declines across the board when compared to the previous month across the Nikkei, Dax and FTSE contracts. The newly introduced Dow Jones contract steals the show with its growth totaling 384.5 per cent month-on-month, albeit from very low base levels.
