BATS December Daily Equity Trading Volume Down 2 Percent

BATS Global Markets said that its average daily matched volume was 576.4 million shares in December, down from 589.7 in November.

It is also lower from one year ago, when 712.9 million shares changed hands. Compared to a year ago, volume is down 19.1 percent.

In December BATS matched market share of its two national stock exchanges was 9.9 percent. That is virtually unchanged from 10.0 percent in November.

A year ago, BATS’ two exchanges had a 11.9 percent share of trading in equities in the United States.

BATS is typically the first exchange operator to report its monthly market share and volume figures and as such can be used as an early indication of overall equities market volume.

For the year, overall equities industry volume in the U.S. fell 3 percent from 2012 – to 6.2 billion shares a day vs. 6.4 billion, according to BATS data.

In equities options, BATS Options saw its matched market share slide to 2.3 in December versus 2.8 in November. This is down 34 percent from the 3.5 percent seen one year ago. Average daily matched volume dropped in December to 324,423 compared to 424,573 in November.

One year ago options volume was 538,725 contracts.

The BATS 1000 Index, a broad based U.S. equities market benchmark, ended the year at 20,823.08 or up 4,778.19 points, or up 29.8 percent higher. The index closed at 16,044.89 for2012.

BATS operates two stock exchanges in the U.S., the BATS BZX Exchange and BATS BYX Exchange; as well as BATS Options, a U.S. equity options market; and BATS Europe and Chi-X Europe.