Friday, 07 May 2010
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LME GROUP
Electronic trading volumes hit record highs amid volatility explosion
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London, 06 May 2010 - Volumes on Select, the LME's electronic trading system, hit a record 155,037 lots on Wednesday May 5, a reflection of the surge in business caused by severe price falls and heightened volatility.

Of this, a record 84,927 lots were outright three-months business, with the balance of 70,110 spread trades. Among the individual metals, record outright turnovers were seen in all the main metals yesterday with the exception of tin.

Investment fund liquidation across financial markets and metals in particular, against a background of a weaker euro, heightened risk aversion and worries over China monetary tightening, have sparked this week's price falls. Copper, aluminium, and zinc all plunged to their lowest since February, tin its weakest since March and lead to levels last seen in August 2009.

Big intraday moves have been seen as well - nickel was 16 percent down on the day at one stage - which reflects the nature of electronic business.

"The game has changed now - you can do big lot orders across the floor, on the phone, but not on the screen," one trader said. "There, it is small stuff - ones and twos - and that moves it much quicker. At one point yesterday there wasn't even a bid on nickel."

As well as on Select, volumes on the LME's other platforms - the open-outcry floor and the telephone market - have been high. The exchange said that total futures and options turnover reached 667,944 lots yesterday. Of this, copper traded 198,768 lots, equal to nearly 5 million tonnes, while aluminium racked up 245,597 contracts, or 6.1 million tonnes. There were also 50 lots of aluminium minis traded - the mini contracts rarely trade.

The overall total is not a record: the LME's largest ever daily total was the 1,181,653 lots traded on January 23, last year, although this is likely to reflect large positions being switched from one party to another - a give-up.

Business levels have been high this year on the LME, a testament to market volatility - large turnovers were seen in January and February during sell-offs. LME turnover last month was up 51.8 percent on April 2009, the exchange said.

(Editing by Mark Shaw)
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