The IntercontinentalExchange continued its upward surge of futures trading activity and commissions on its over-the-counter (OTC) business with new records in both areas in September. It was the ninth consecutive record month for ICE futures. At the same time the rival New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) reported that as of Sept. 29, trading in a number of areas in the first nine months of 2006 had exceeded totals traded in all of 2005.

Nymex also said shareholders would be voting Oct. 12 on its proposed initial public offering.

ICE’s London-based futures subsidiary reported 9,403,702 contracts traded during the month for an average daily volume for futures during September of 447,795 contracts, above the ADV of 406,037 recorded in August and 135% greater than the activity reported in September a year ago. For the third quarter 2006 ADV was 412,993 for a quarterly total of 26.8 million contracts, a 125% increase over 3Q2005.

Average daily commissions in ICE’s OTC business segment in September rose 115.8% over September 2005, to $805,681. That also bested the $799,017 reported in August 2006. Third quarter average daily commissions were $737,967, a 95.3% increase over the third quarter of 2005. The Atlanta, GA-based company said the increase in average daily commissions was driven in part by ICE’s new and existing cleared OTC contracts, new participants, and continued price volatility in energy commodities.

In New York, Nymex said that as of Sept. 29 exchange-wide futures and options volume in 2006 reached 207,247,582 contracts, exceeding the 204,611,537 contracts traded in all of 2005.

Contributing to that total, Nymex Division trading reached 182,857,439 contracts, surpassing the 175,038,840 contracts traded last year. That included 142,631,321 futures contracts, beating the 141,201,169 contracts traded in 2005, and Nymex Division options totaling 40,226,118 contracts, topping the 33,837,671 contracts traded in 2005.

The exchange said Nymex and Comex Division options reached 44,595,678 contracts, breaking the previous year’s record of 38,002,895 contracts traded.

ICE listed its accomplishments for the month, including entering into a definitive agreement to acquire the New York Board of Trade in a cash and stock transaction, and recording, for the fourth consecutive month, a greater than 50% market share in global crude futures as measured by volume of light sweet crude oil.

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