FX trading on Thomson Reuters dips in February

LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - Daily spot foreign exchange trading volumes on Thomson Reuters (Frankfurt: TOC.F - news) dipped in February from a month earlier, still showing improvement from long-term lows hit at the end of last year but down an average of $24 billion on a year ago.

Along with another major currency trading host, ICAP (LSE: IAP.L - news) -owned EBS, the share of Thomson Reuters' Matching service in the world's biggest market has fallen in the face of competition from players such as Hotspot FX and commodities-dominated exchange CME.

Daily volumes on Thomson Reuters Matching fell to $113 billion in February from $117 billion in January and $137 billion a year ago. However, trading on FXAll, the company's electronic platform for buyside customers, was almost unchanged on the month and up 10 percent year-on-year at $122 billion.

By comparison, ICAP said last week that volumes on the EBS platform fell 5 percent in February from January and 44 percent on the year, to $149 billion.

A rise in Chinese yuan trading - prompted by Beijing's efforts over the past month to halt the currency's steady rise, creating more market volatility and hence volumes of trade - have boosted trading, Thomson Reuters said.

"Trading volumes on Thomson Reuters venues remained steady through February which was a slower month due to fewer trading days and Chinese New Year," Phil Weisberg, global head of Foreign Exchange at Thomson Reuters, said.

"As with the rest of the market, we saw continued strong performance in CNH (offshore yuan trade) which became the second most traded pair by volume on our Matching platform."