EquiLend

Insight

January 2025

Mike Norwood

Monthly Securities Finance Market Review: December 2024

EquiLend’s Head of Trading Solutions, Mike Norwood, shares his monthly market review for securities finance, highlighting December trends seen across NGT. The following data has been measured and derived from EquiLend NGT.

Trading by Sector for December: The Global Picture

December saw 2,781,912 trades executed across EquiLend’s NGT platform v $3.12T notional, representing 2% growth over November and a 13% increase year-over-year v December 2023. This increase helped set a new quarterly record for both trade counts and balance executed with 8.5m trades v $9.2T agreed throughout Q4.

Global Fixed Income and Equities

Global markets missed out on the Santa rally this year as a more hawkish stance by the US Fed weighed on valuations. There were broad declines in global equities and higher yields put bonds under pressure to end, what was over all, a strong year for the markets. Decline in the indices did lead to some strengthening demand for equities as month over month we saw +5% borrowing while bond demand softened at –5%. These figures still represent noticeable growth over the year period with equity at +15% and fixed income +11% y/y. US (+8%) and APAC (+5%) were the standout markets in December as speculation around Fed rate policy, the election and economic indicators created considerable volatility.

Trading in APAC

APAC’s story varied by market as in region political turmoil in South Korea and the impact of US interest rate policy on the Australian market created additional borrowing demand. Japan saw an 11% increase in borrowing as the Nikkei closed the year at its highest ever level on a weaker yen and optimism about the direction of the economy, coupled with differing expectations on Bank of Japan interest rate policy.

Market focus will now shift to the incoming US administration and the end of January Fed meeting. We will watch with interest and be back in February to review the markets reaction to the second Trump administration.

Within global equities, NGT’s most in-demand sectors were: 

Stay tuned for the latest securities finance trends, trading analysis and commentary with EquiLend’s Monthly Trading Commentary across 2025.

Who We Are

EquiLend is a global financial technology firm offering Trading, Post-Trade, Data & Analytics, RegTech and Platform Solutions for the securities finance industry. EquiLend has offices in North America, EMEA and Asia-Pacific and is regulated in jurisdictions around the globe. The company is Great Place to Work Certified™ in the U.S., UK, Ireland and India and has been honored as European and Americas Data Provider of the Year and Regulatory Solution of the Year in the Securities Finance Times Industry Excellence Awards 2024. www.equilend.com

Head of Trading Solutions
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