Over 39 million cash transactions completed in first quarter 2005, up 16.5% on 2004 on a daily average basis

Euronext.liffe trades over 200 million Futures and Options contracts in first quarter

Cash products

Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, Paris, 1 April 2005 – 12.9 million transactions were completed on Euronext’s cash markets in March 2005. This represents an increase of 9.4% compared to 2004’s monthly average, down on the same month last year, which was the busiest month since the creation of Euronext.
Over the first three months of 2005 more than 39 million cash transactions were registered, representing a daily average of 636,000, up 16.5% compared to the daily average in 2004, slightly down 2.4% year-on-year.

Shares
12.2 million share transactions were completed in March 2005, up 8.8% on the monthly average in 2004, bringing the total number of transactions since the beginning of 2005 to over 37 million.

IPOs
There have been 4 IPOs on Euronext’s regulated markets so far this year: Cafom, Sanef, RHJ International and Eurocommercial Properties, with a total amount of EUR 1.5 billion placed. These 4 new listings represent an additional EUR 5.3 billion in market capitalisation on Euronext markets.

Derivatives products

Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, London, Paris, 1 April 2005 – Euronext.liffe, the international derivatives business of Euronext, traded 203 million futures and options contracts in the first quarter of 2005. Equity products traded 117 million contracts and Euronext.liffe’s interest rate products traded 83 million contracts.

Trading in 2005 decreased by 13% compared to the first quarter of 2004, reflecting the sustained lack of volatility in the short-term interest rate and equity markets and the very strong first quarter of last year. However, average daily volume year-to-date in 2005 is 3.2 million, up 5% on the average daily volume for 2004 and up 17% on the 2003 average daily volume.

Commodity products continued to show strong growth, trading 2.2 million contracts from January to March and up 27% year-on-year.

Total equity index futures set a new daily trading volume record on 15 March, trading 864,721 contracts.

Euronext.liffe’s Eurodollar future set an open interest record of over 200,000 on 14 March. Volume in March amounted to over 1 million futures contracts representing an average daily volume of over 47,000 contracts, boosted particularly by the growth of activity in “packs and bundles” which grew by over 150% in March.

Notes to Editors:

Packs and Bundles are standardised strip transactions in short-term interest rate products which allow customers to gain access to longer-term interest rates in a single trade. Both Packs and Bundles are traded as recognised strategies on LIFFE CONNECT®. A Pack involves trading the same number of lots in each of the four consecutive quarterly delivery months of particular colour grouping. So a ‘White Pack’ comprises White Mar, White Jun, White Sep and White Dec. Bundles are basically groups of Packs out to a particular term, always starting from the front month.  A Two Year Bundle is made up of the White Pack and the Red Pack. LIFFE CONNECT® currently offers Five Packs (White, Red, Green, Blue & Gold) and Four Bundles (Two, Three, Four & Five Year).

This press release has been prepared using actual volumes for the month, apart from for the last trading day when an estimate based on the average daily volume for the current month is used. Final detailed figures for the month will be published three working days after the end of the month on the Euronext websites: www.euronext.com and www.liffe.com


Appendix: Euronext cash and derivatives market tables

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