China's futures market posts 40 trillion yuan of trade volume this year

The latest statistics from Dalian Commodity Exchange show that China's three major futures exchanges in Shanghai, Dalian and Zhengzhou posted 728.46 million turnover times, totaling 40.974 trillion yuan, respectively up 62% and 95% year on year. Turnover on the three futures exchanges exceeded the country's GDP for the first time.

The three major futures exchanges, apart from the in-the-pipeline financial futures exchange, have all witnessed fast growth in 2007, creating an unprecedented momentum in China's futures market and becoming the most booming and robust market in the world.

Turnover and transaction volume on Dalian Commodity Exchange reached 3.7 trillion times and 1.9 trillion yuan respectively, up 54.23% and 128% from the previous year. While the transaction volume on Shanghai Futures Exchange topped 23 trillion yuan, taking up more than half of the total nationwide.

Four new futures products were rolled out in the futures market in 2007, including Shanghai-listed zinc, Zhengzhou-listed rapeseed oil, and Dalian-listed polyethylene and palm oil. Industry insiders hold China's futures market will usher in a milestone new chapter in the spring of this year, as gold futures has been approved for a Shanghai listing due next week, the eagerly-expected stock index futures may not be far away.