Market Activity in October 2018

By: The WFE Statistics Team Nov 2018

Stock markets across the globe saw a sell-off in Oct 2018 and benchmark indices fell to record low levels. In this article we examine market activity as reflected by value and volumes of trades in equities and ETFs against this backdrop.

Volume of trades in Equity shares

  • Overall market volumes in Oct 2018 were up 131.9% on Oct 2017.
  • This significant uptick in volumes was largely driven by the Americas region where volumes traded were up 386.2%.
  • Volumes traded in the Asia-Pacific and EMEA regions were up 17.7% and 31.3% on Oct 2017.

Value of trades in equity shares

  • Value traded globally was up 36.1%, due to increases in value traded in the Americas and the EMEA regions.
  • The Americas region saw a significant 75.9% increase, while in the EMEA region, value traded was up 21.8% on Oct 2017.
  • Only the Asia-Pacific region recorded a 15.2% decline in value traded on Oct 2017.

Volumes of trades in ETFs

  • There was a significant increase in volumes of ETFs traded globally, up 164.3% on Oct 2017.
  • This was due to increases in volumes traded across all three regions, the Americas region was up 161.9%, the Asia-Pacific region up 191.8% and the EMEA region up 67.5% respectively.

Value of trades in ETFs

  • Global value of trades in ETFs in Oct 2018 were also significantly higher than in Oct 2017, up 116.4%. This increase too was driven by the increases in value traded across all three regions.
  • Value traded in the Americas region was up 128.2%, the Asia-Pacific region up 51.4% and in the EMEA region up 45.6% on Oct 2017.    

Global value and volumes of trades in equities and ETFs in Oct 2018 were highest in the period under review (since Jan 2017).