This Monday, the Japan Exchange Group (JPX), the operator of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Osaka Securities Exchange , released trading volumes for the first half of its 2018 fiscal year.
The Japanese company saw a year-on-year uptick in trading from April to September. Trading in equities and derivatives were both up, with significant an increase in the volume of exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) trading.
Total trading in domestic stocks, in the ‘first section’ of the Tokyo Stock Exchange , was equal to ¥2.83 trillion ($24.82 billion). That was a 6.4 percent increase on last year’s ¥2.66 trillion ($23.33 billion).
In the ETF market, trading was up by 32.5 percent. Last year, JPX reported a total ETF trading volume of ¥135.6 billion ($1.19 billion). For the same period this year, the figure was ¥179.7 billion ($1.58 billion).
JPX Derivatives
Things were just as positive in JPX’s derivatives markets. According to a statement released by the company on Monday, the exchange-operator saw its third-highest levels of derivatives trading in a six-month period.
From April to September of 2017, JPX reported a total trading volume, in its derivatives markets, of 148,412,376 contracts. This year that figure increased - by 8.3 percent - to 160,742,468 derivatives contracts.
Monetarily, the value of those contracts was much greater. In the first half of JPX’s 2018 fiscal year, the total value of derivatives trading activity was ¥1456 trillion ($12.77 trillion). That was a 19.8 percent increase on last year’s ¥1211 trillion ($10.62 trillion).
Though JPX did not state so explicitly, trading in equity index derivatives some of their highest levels ever in the first half of the 2018 fiscal year. Last year - with the second highest equity index trading levels ever - the firm reported a total volume of ¥606 trillion ($5.32 trillion). This year the number was ¥708 trillion ($6.21 billion).
