Equity trading activity in Canada rebounded a bit in the first quarter, but remain well below the same levels a year ago, according to the latest data from the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).
Based on data received from each marketplace through the regulatory feed, IIROC reports that trading volume in the first quarter was up 2.4% from the fourth quarter of 2012 to 47.7 billion shares. The number of trades rose by 3.3%, and the value traded rose by about 7.4% to $496.3 billion.
However, these totals are still down significantly from the first quarter of 2012. IIROC data shows that total volume was down 16.8%, the value traded was down 14.1%, and the number of trades was off by 21.9%.
IIROC also notes that the average trade size was 605 shares per trade in the first quarter, down slightly from 610 shares per trade in Q4 2012, but up from 568 shares per trade in Q1 2012.
The Toronto Stock Exchange accounted for just under 60% of the value traded in the first quarter; with its recent acquisition, Alpha, representing an additional 15.4% of the value traded, almost 2% also traded on TMX Select, and 0.9% on TSX Venture Exchange. Chi-X was the leading alternative trading system, with 16.9% of the value traded.