EBS Foreign-Exchange Trading Volumes Rise In April

By Clare Connaghan

Currency trading volumes handled by ICAP PLC (IAP.LN)-owned EBS averaged $128.3 billion a day in April, 7% higher than the previous month, the company said Friday.

EBS--which handles flows from the biggest banks in the business--also saw a 17% rise in April from a year earlier when the daily average was $109.7 billion.

Although April's volumes are higher both on the year and month, activity is still lower than the first two months of the year, when volumes averaged $145.1 billion daily.

This year started strongly with several banks reporting record volumes of trade as trends such as yen weakness encouraged traders and investors alike to put money to work. Activity slowed down in March as a banking crisis in Cyprus reignited stress in the euro zone. Those concerns have since eased, helping volumes in April to pick up.

CME--the parent company of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange--said Wednesday that its foreign-exchange volumes averaged 898,000 contracts a day in April, up 18% from the corresponding period last year, but down 18% from March when the daily average was 1.1 million contracts.

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