The Taiwan Futures Exchange's (TAIFEX) ranking jumped to seventh in the world last year in terms of the number of lots it handled, according to a recent analysis published by the Institute of Management and Administra-tion (IOMA).
The ranking represents a noticeable improvement from 2002, when TAIEFEX was ranked 17th. The exchange had a 299 percent annual growth rate last year, as it dealt with more than 31.67 million contracts, the IOMA report shows.
It was the first time that the TAIFEX managed to rank in the top 10 on the IOMA list.
The increase rate was the world's second-highest last year after the 508 percent growth rate registered by the National Stock Exchange of India (NSEI), the report said.
TAIFEX officials attributed the growth to a larger number of investors who have become familiar with futures and derived products in the domestic market, which is also more open than it has been in the past.
According to IOMA, an all-time high of 9.7 billion contracts in financial derivatives were traded last year around the world, with 2.73 billion of them generated by dealings in futures.
In terms of the amount of stock derivatives, including options and futures, the EURO-NEXT outperformed the others by completing 250 million contracts last year, followed by the South Africa Securities Exchange, Russia's RTS, the Spanish Exchanges and the NSEI.
In terms of the amount of stock index derivatives, South Korea's KSE ranked in first place last year, trading nearly 3 billion contracts, or around 50 percent of the total.
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