Daily spot trading volumes on currency trading platforms run by Thomson Reuters inched up to $91 billion from a three-year low in December, according to figures published by the company late on Friday. Volumes traditionally tail off at the end of the year as market participants close their books and take profits, but December's average spot volumes of $91 billion were down 14 percent from the same month of 2014.
That was just 1 percent higher than the three-year low hit in November. Figures from rival EBS, owned by the world's largest inter-dealer broker ICAP, showed a bigger fall in spot trade. Average daily volumes were down 29 percent on the year at $74.8 billion, according to the company's website, and down 1 percent on the month.
Much of the trading in sterling and "dollar bloc" currencies like the Australian and Canadian dollars goes through Thomson Reuters platforms, while EBS has more euro and yen volume. The total average daily volume for currency trading across all Thomson Reuters platforms, including forwards, swaps, options and non-deliverable forwards as well as spot foreign exchange, rose 6 percent on the month to $337 billion. That was down slightly from $350 billion in December 2014.