Glad to see that whilst I was enjoying a welcome Thanksgiving break the boys at Fidessa Labs were busy re-calculating the FFI to better reflect dual listed stocks (see The Great Dexia Debate – a resolution). As you can see from the revised data, in first place is the FTSE 100 (FFI 1.55) followed by the respective indices of Amsterdam (FFI 1.45), Paris (FFI 1.34) and then Germany (FFI 1.32). Interestingly, the LSE has now lost around 30% market share to alternative venues if you look at its ten most fragmented stocks. It will be fascinating to see if the new venues are having the same corrosive effect on the FTSE 250 – something we hope to publish in the near future.
As 2008 starts to draw to a close, I am sure that traditional and new venues alike will be thinking about their strategies for 2009. The big guys will be launching their own MTFs – Arca Europe and Baikal – whilst the alternative venues will be looking at how they build on the momentum they have already established. Looks like having an accurate view of fragmentation is going to be an important part of these strategies, and for the firms that use these markets.
