Market Metrics That Matter: European Equities May Volume Briefing

Welcome to the May edition of Market Metrics That Matter, your monthly briefing on European cash equities trends.

Don’t forget to visit Cboe Europe’s Market Share page for leading insights into European equity trading activity.

May 2026 Highlights

European equity trading volumes continued to soften during May following the high-volatility period at the start of the year, with activity shifting from continuous trading to Closing Auctions following the MSCI rebalance

• Total on-exchange average daily value traded (ADVT) in European equities reached €60.7bn, down from €64.5bn in April
• Total addressable activity (including on and off-exchange), was €89.1bn, compared with €95.7bn from April
• Market-wide activity shifted away from the continuous trading session towards Closing Auctions, which accounted for 27.3% of on-exchange activity, up from 24.5% in April. On 29 May, the Closing Auction represented 61% of total activity, with a record €75.9bn traded, driven by the MSCI rebalance
• Central Limit Order Books accounted 50.1% of on-exchange activity (vs 51.7% in April); dark order books fell slightly from 10.7% to 10%; and Periodic Auctions from 11.3% to 10.6%
• Systematic Internaliser (SI) activity remained robust, with particularly strong growth year-over-year. Addressable SI total ADVT reached €16.2bn (vs €17.8bn in April 2026 and €10.6bn in May 2025). This represented 18.2% of total addressable volume, compared with 18.6% in April 2026 and 14.6% in May 2025.
• Frankfurt-listed securities recorded the strongest month-on-month increase in market share (+1.7 percentage points), while Paris reduced the most (-1.2 percentage points)

Cboe Europe was the largest equities exchange by market share, supported by its diversified trading mechanism offering

• Cboe Europe’s overall market share was 24.5%, down slightly from 25.8% in April, making it the largest pan-European stock exchange
• Cboe Periodic Auctions achieved a monthly ADVT of €5.1bn, representing 8.5% of all on-exchange activity and 80.2% of the Periodic Auctions segment
• Cboe BIDS Europe, Cboe’s European block trading platform, remained the largest of its kind for the 50th consecutive month, posting a monthly ADVT of €578.5m and an above-LIS market share of 32%
• Cboe Closing Cross (3C), our post-close service, achieved its second-highest record ADVT of €2.9bn on 29 May

Chart of the Month

Source: Cboe Europe data

Upcoming Changes

Update - Cboe Europe Equities Maximum Permitted Notional Value per Exchange Trade Report Increase

News and Insights

Cboe Global Markets Reports Trading Volume for May 2026

Cboe Hires Boudewijn Duinstra as Executive Vice President, Chief Risk Officer