The ASX Ltd (ASX: ASX) share price is on the move on Thursday after the release of its activity report for December and the calendar year.
At the time of writing, the stock exchange operator's shares are up 0.5% to $72.67.
How did ASX perform in December?
During the month of December, the average daily number of Cash Market trades was 6% lower than the prior corresponding period.
However, the average daily value traded on-market was 22% higher than the prior corresponding period at $5.6 billion.
This led to the average daily number of trades coming in at 1,725,560 for the year, which was 8% higher than in calendar year 2019. The average daily value traded on-market was $6.5 billion for 2020, up 34% year on year.
This solid increase in the number of trades appears to have been driven by a surge in first-time investors last year. A large number of new investors started investing after the COVID-related market crash early in the year.
Things were not quite as positive for its Futures business. In December, the average daily futures volume was down 22% and average daily options volume was down 83% on the prior corresponding period.
As a result, average daily futures and options on futures volume was 606,033 over the year, which was 14% lower than in calendar year 2019.
It was a similar story for its OTC Markets business in December. The notional value of OTC interest rate derivative contracts centrally cleared was $814.6 billion for the month, compared to $1,447.2 billion a year earlier.
This led to the notional value of OTC interest rate derivative contracts centrally cleared coming in at $9,174.7 billion in 2020. This is down 38% from $14,733.3 billion in calendar year 2019.
Finally, ASX reported a 15% decline in average daily number of single stock options for the year and a $1.8 billion increase in participant margin balances from exchange-traded markets.
