Aquis turnover in new closing auction totals 208 million euro since August 13

LONDON (Reuters) - Turnover on Aquis Exchange Plc's <AQX.L> new end-of-day auction has totalled some 208 million euro (£190 million) over the past week, a spokeswoman said, the latest sign that competition in the popular closing auctions in Europe is growing.

Aquis has launched its Market at Close (MaC) product to break the monopoly held by European stock exchanges like Euronext <ENX.PA>, over the end-of-day auctions, which last five minutes and take place at 1530 GMT each day.

CBOE Europe also debuted its closing auction this week.

MaC got UK regulatory approval a few years ago, but it has only seen volume pick up recently. The data covers the five trading days from Aug. 13 to Aug. 19.

"This is a great start given the current climate, both the time of the year and politically," the spokeswoman said, adding she was confident that turnover would grow.

The product, which runs parallel with the official exchange-operated auctions, covers most European bourses except for those in Spain, Norway and Austria.

(Reporting by Josephine Mason; Editing by Tom Wilson and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)