Markit BOAT top for Europe equity reporting - study

By Daisy Ku

LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - Markit BOAT, a new equity trade reporting venture, beat Deutsche Boerse AG and the London Stock Exchange Plc to be Europe's top equities reporting venue in May, a Thomson Reuters study showed on Wednesday.

Markit BOAT captured a 22 percent share of reporting for all European equity trading in May, including both on-exchange and over-the-counter, the Reuters European Equity Market Share Report showed, beating Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) with 16 percent and the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) with 11 percent.

BOAT was launched last year as new European Commission trading rules -- the markets in financial instruments directive or MiFID -- aimed at boosting competition came into effect. It is run by financial information provider Markit and offers a cheaper data reporting service.

"Firms are increasingly exercising the choice MiFID gives to publish their trade away from primary exchanges," said Andrew Allwright, exchange traded instruments business manager at Thomson Reuters Corp/Plc (TRIL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (TRI.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (TRIN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (TRI.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

"This shows the challenge for people to access consolidated data because it means accessing the data from many more venues." In a sign of fragmentation of European equity trading, the combined market share of the top three reporting venues dropped to 49.8 percent in May from 51.7 percent in November.

Both Deutsche Boerse and the LSE lost ground in reporting for the most liquid stocks in their home markets.

In May, the LSE captured about 58 percent for all FTSE 100 equities reporting, down from 61 percent in April and 68 percent in November.

Deutsche Boerse saw an even bigger drop, registering just 28 percent for Xetra DAX Index equities reporting, down from 36 percent in April and 66 percent in November.

Information sales accounted for less than 8 percent of the German exchange's total revenue in 2007. By comparison, it made up about 26 percent of LSE's total turnover in the year ended March 2008.

Given recent job reductions in the investment banking industry, the LSE is unlikely to repeat last year's 36 percent jump in information revenue this year, analysts have said.

Market share for all European Equities reporting:
(based on turnover)

*Source:The Reuters European Equity Market Share Report.
 (Editing by David Holmes)