Busiest first quarter ever for cash and derivatives markets
Cash transactions up 64.1% in March and up 46.5% year-to-date
Euronext.liffe up 32% in March and up 27% year-to-date

20 IPOs in Q1
Best year start for IPOs in five years

Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, London, Paris, 31 March 2006

Cash products

Euronext’s cash markets registered their busiest month ever in March 2006, with 21.2 million cash transactions completed, up 64.1% on the same month last year and surpassing by 14% the previous record of 18.6 million set in January 2006. This represents a record daily average of 920,000.
During the first quarter 2006, 57.8 million cash transactions were registered, representing a record level for the first quarter of the year, up 46.5% year-on-year.

Shares
A record 20.2 million transaction was registered in shares in March 2006, up 65.4% on the same month in 2005, representing an average of 878,000 share transactions completed each day.

Initial Public Offerings
There have been 9 IPOs on all Euronext markets in March, bringing the total number of new listings so far this year to 20. 9 out of those 20 IPOs were on Alternext. This is the best year start for IPOs in 5 years.

NextTrack & NextWarrants
Year-to-date transactions were up 176.8% on NextTrack and up 35.6% on NextWarrants, which includes warrants and certificates, making the first quarter 2006 the busiest ever for these products.

Derivatives products

Euronext.liffe, the international derivatives business of Euronext, traded 68 million futures and options contracts in March 2006, up 32% on the same month last year and a record for March. The record activity sealed a strong first quarter for Euronext.liffe, with volumes over the three month period up 27% on the first quarter of 2005. A total of 183 million contracts were traded: also a first quarter record for the business.

Euronext.liffe’s individual equity products were again the strongest performers. Over 17 million contracts were traded in March 2006, up 44% on March 2005 and up 45% in the year-to-date. A record 12 million contracts were traded on the Amsterdam market. 

Interest rate products also saw strong trading. March volumes were up 31% on March last year. In the year-to-date, volumes were up 19%.
 
Notes to Editors:

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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Paris  +33 1 49 27 11 33

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