South Korea retained its position as the world’s largest financial derivatives market in terms of trading volume last year, claiming 27 percent of total trading volume, data showed Sunday.

The trading volume of financial derivatives, such as futures and options, on the local bourse gained 4.4 percent on-year to 3.81 billion contracts, according to the data from the World Federation of Exchanges. In the same period, global trading volume jumped 9.4 percent to 14.14 billion contracts.

The on-year increase was attributed to a rise in trading volume of options products that track the local stock index. Trading volume of such products increased 4.1 percent to 3.67 billion contracts, accounting for 63.7 percent of global trading volume.

The local derivatives market, established in 1995, has seen robust growth in recent years but also received a backlash over a rise in unfair trade practices amid a rush of retail investors.

Last year, the trading volume of retail investors accounted for around 32.3 percent of total trading volume on the local bourse, while the comparable figure for institutions and foreigners came to 32.3 percent and 31.5 percent, respectively. 

(Yonhap News)