SIX Swiss Exchange Posts 26.9% Decrease in 2021 Trading Volume

The pandemic continued to create challenges throughout the year and in February 2021, trading in Swiss equities on platforms outside of Switzerland was resumed in the UK. In this environment, the infrastructure of SIX once again proved stable and reliable, providing the solid bedrock for capital raising in the primary market and price discovery in the secondary market.

Jos Dijsselhof, CEO SIX, highlighted: "In these challenging times, we continued to constantly support the real economy with our markets. We kept our platforms and services always running smoothly in the interest of all market participants while ensuring the safety of our staff. Additionally, we introduced several new offerings like capabilities to raise capital for SMEs with our new Sparks segment. In short, we fulfilled our mission for the benefit of financial markets, the economy, and even for society as a whole.”

Compared to unprecedented volumes in the previous year, a return to stability with regards to volatility in the markets in 2021 resulted in a decrease of trading volumes and the number of transactions on SIX Swiss Exchange, with CHF 1,282.4 billion and 62,665,033 (-26.9% and -37.0% respectively).

In 2021, the security with the highest trading turnover on SIX Swiss Exchange was NESTLE N with CHF 111.4 billion (2020: ROCHE GS with CHF 181.8 billion), while ROCHE GS was again the most traded security with 3,584,226 transactions (2020: 6,128,146).

The highest monthly trading turnover was registered in March 2021, with CHF 138.0 billion, and the highest number of transactions in a single month in January 2021, with 7,219,992. The highest turnover on a single trading day was recorded on 19 March 2021, with a total volume of CHF 12.6 billion. The highest number of trades was recorded on 27 January 2021, with 440,637.

With the arrival of the three new trading participants Exane, Hudson River Trading Europe and SSW-Trading GmbH in 2021, the membership basis of the highly liquid reference market for Swiss securities was further internationalized.