March has been a relatively calm month for the foreign exchange markets. Save for some one off Volatility events like the US Fed meeting and the ECB presser, markets have traded calmly within recent ranges.
NEX Group’s electronic trading division, NEX Markets, has just reported its trading volumes data for March. The company’s foreign exchange platform, EBS, registered $86.5 billion worth of transactions daily. The figure is higher by 7 percent when compared to February and by 3 percent when compared to March 2016.
On a 12 month average basis, the company’s trading volumes are lower by 8 percent between March 31st 2016 and March 31st 2017.
Fixed Income
The company’s US fixed income business saw an increase of 11 percent year-on-year and was more or less flat when compared to February. The volumes of US treasuries transacted via the company’s electronic trading facilities amounted to $172 billion daily.
EU and US repos posted year-on-year increases, 5 and 17 percent respectively. European repo transactions amounted to $215 billion daily, which is flat month-on-month. US repo figures stood at $225.2 billion, a figure that is higher by 11 percent when compared to February 2017.
FX Volumes Trends
The year is starting slowly for foreign exchange trading, given the increased expectations in the aftermath of the US election. Trading volumes in FX have been higher than last year at most institutional trading venues, but much lower when compared to November and some parts of December.
Future volatility hinges on a number of risk events, such as the French election, Brexit negotiations and US political uncertainty.
