The total trading volume on the London Metal Exchange fell 5.9% year on year to 74.69 million lots over January-June, parent company Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing said Wednesday.
The average daily trading volume on the LME shrank 5.9% year on year to 597,542 lots/day, HKEx said in its 2017 interim results.
Futures market open interest on the LME stood at 2.27 million lots at end June, down 2.5% year on year.
With the exception of zinc futures, trading of the exchange's major non-ferrous metals contracts fell across the board in H1.
The average daily turnover of copper contracts fell 15.1% year on year to 138,257 lots, of aluminum fell 5.8% to 217,724 lots, of lead fell 10.7% to 40,179 lots and of nickel edged down almost 1% to 81,135 lots.
Zinc contracts bucked the downtrend, rising 6% to 112,543 lots in H1.
LME revenue was down 10.3% year on year at HK$721 million ($92.2 million) in H1, and contributed 11.6% of the HKEx's total revenue of HK$6.2 billion in the period.
The HKEx also provided information on the LMEprecious initiative, which offers LME-traded and centrally cleared loco London gold and silver futures.
A total 55.5 million oz (1,728 mt or 11,100 lots) of silver futures and 9.2 million oz (285 mt or 91,500 lots) of gold futures have been traded since the launch of LMEprecious on July 10, HKEx said.
The combined average daily volume of the gold and silver contracts increased from 5,600 lots in the first week to 7,400 lots in the last week of July, it added.
