The Tokyo Financial Exchange (TFX) has reported its latest trading volumes for the month ending February 2018. For the second month in a row, the venue saw a surge in FX figures, having already seen a notable uptick last month to start off 2018. The latest jump underscores a blend of Volatility and JPY trading that was notably absent in previous months.
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The first two months of 2018 constitute a different setting than Q4 2017, in which Japanese exchanges had largely seen waning volumes. This trend was present across both the retail and institutional space, though with the return of volatility big money seems to have once again been active with markets waking up.
In terms of TFX, the latest figures saw sustained growth with its FX volumes during February 2018. In particular, the total trading volume of FX Daily Futures contracts (Click 365) during February 2018 was 3,107,395 contracts, up 25.2 percent on a month-over-month basis from 2,482,513 contracts in January 2018. Over a yearly timetable, this figure inverted higher, with a growth of 29.3 percent relative to February 2018.
Additionally, Click 365’s daily average FX contracts also were reported at 155,370 contracts in February 2018, surpassing 112,839 contracts per day in December 2017, or 37.7 percent higher month-over-month. The biggest reason for this surge was strong activity in JPY trading pairs.
The USD/JPY saw a growth of 9.0 percent month-over-month in February 2018, while ZAR/JPY trading grew 50.0 percent – the pair with the largest growth during February was the GBP/JPY, soaring 164.6 percent month-over-month.
Equities volumes in retreat
In terms of Equity Index Daily Futures contracts on Click Kabu 365, the segment did not see the same performance as in FX. This was on display following a decline of19.9 percent after posting a reading of 494,748 contracts in February 2018, relative to 617,705 futures contracts in January.
Click Kabu 365’s volumes were lower across the board as demand for nearly all instruments retreated off of last month. This included declines for Nikkei 225 daily futures, DIJA, and DAX – only FTSE daily futures managed to rise on a monthly basis, albeit by 1.9 percent.
