HONG KONG: The bull run in China’s share markets that collapsed last month drove a 36 per cent rise in global equity trading volumes during the first half of 2015, according to data released on Wednesday.

Share trading on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges jumped 166 per cent during the first half compared with the second half of 2014, the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) said.

This boosted the total value of share trading to $59 (Dh216.71) trillion during the first half, 36 per cent up compared with the second half of 2014 and 58 per cent up year-on-year, according to the WFE, the main international trade group for stock exchanges.

Excluding mainland China, global equity turnover rose just 5 per cent, the WFE said.

“The increase in global equity trading volumes was driven by rapid growth in share trading in mainland China,” said Gregoire Naacke, WFE senior analyst, in a statement.

“A number of special factors explain the recent developments in the Chinese markets, including: strong participation by retail investors, strong market performance and high volatility.

We wait to see what impact more recent developments will have on market volumes going forward,” Naacke added.

China’s bourses have had a turbulent time in recent months after a margin-finance driven bull run that nearly doubled the value of the country’s equity capital markets collapsed in mid-June.

Since then, the China market has fallen around 30 per cent wiping out more than $3 trillion (Dh11.01 trillion) of gains.

Despite a series of government interventions to prop up the market, stocks fell 8.5 per cent on Monday in their sharpest drop since 2007.

Trading in both Shanghai and Shenzhen has fallen in recent weeks, with trading on Shanghai nearly halving from its peak of 1.3 trillion yuan (Dh771.33 billion; $210 billion) in early June to around 670 billion yuan as of Tuesday. Shenzhen volumes fell 35 per cent in the same period to 619 billion yuan.

During the first six months of the year, the value of share trading in Asia-ex China increased 12 per cent, with EMEA and the Americas seeing growth of 11 per cent and just 1 per cent respectively, the WFE said.

— Reuters