Last month I looked at the most active trading names in CDS and TRS in April 2023, so today I will update that for May 2023. This data is from U.S. SEC Securities Based Swap Data Repositorys (SBSDRs).
CDS on Sovereigns
Using SBSDRView, we can find the most active sovereigns for CDS trades in May 2023.
- Showing the name, gross notional in millions of usd, trade count and rank in May (with change from prior month).
- We could rank by notional but for CDS we prefer to use trade count as with $5million as the maximum disclosed notional for a single trade, we know from the data that this total gross notional is significantly understated, particularly for Sovereigns and less so for Corporates.
- Turkey the most active name with 521 trades, up 4 places from the prior month (158 trades), the higher volume no doubt related to the recent re-election of President Erdogan for five more years
- South Africa in second, with 330 trades, up 2 places from April (210 trades)
- Mexico in third with 225 trades, down 2 places from April (462 trades)
- Brazil in fourth with 212 trades, down 1 place frm April (221 trades)
- Hellenic Republic (Greece) that largest mover, up 12 places to eighteenth with 30 trades
The above list was a selection for USD trades only.
Changing to EUR, to see if we see any trades on USA, as we did in April.
- 34 trades on USA, up from 9 in April
- As the USA is the best credit there is in Capital markets, I did not expect to see these trade counts continuing to increase, particularily as the debt ceiling stand-off is resolved for now
- June month-to-date, shows 16 trades, so possibly CDS on USA will remain a novelty for a while yet
CDS on US Corporates
Next the twenty most active US corporates by trade count for May 2023.
- Royal Carribean Cruises heading the list with 132 trades, up 9 places and a name we see every month in the top 10 and frequently top 5
- Ford in second, also a frequent top name
- Newell Brands Inc, the owner of consumer brands including Parker, Sharpie, Rubbermaid and more, is up 28 places in fourth with 107 trades
- Paramount Global, up 53 places in fifth with 102 trades
- Notable movers are Kroger, Canadian Natural Resources, Occidental Petroleum and Darden Resturants
- While most other names have a similar rank to the prior month
CDS on EU Corporates
Next let’s look at the most active EU Corporates.
- Sweeping changes in rank from the prior month, as we have seen before
- Only Casino Guichard-Perrachon, the food retailer, in the top 20 in both May and April
- Credit Suisse Group in first place with 193 trades, up from 21st and 99 trades in April. I have not been following what is happening with CDS on Credit Suisse given the take-over by UBS, but clearly activity in CDS shows that there are differing views on the debt recovery
- Financials to the fore this mnth, in contrast to the prior month when it was the Automotive sector
- Intesa Sanpaolo, Santander, BBVA and AXA, making up the top 5
- Other notables movers are Aegon, Allianz, Wendel, Standard Chartered, Natwest Markets
- A really busy month for European Financials in CDS
TRS on US Equities
Let’s turn now to Equity markets and Total Return Swaps on US Stocks in May 2023 and rank by gross notional, as unlike CDS a far smaller portion of trades have capped notionals, with only trades > $250 million size being capped.
- Apple in top spot with $2.5 billion and 334 trades, up 1 place from the prior month
- iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF, in second with $1.5 billion from 39 trades, is up 3 places
- Microsoft in third with $1.1 billion from 259 trades, is up 1 places
- Magellan Midstream Partners in fourth with $1.1 billion from 403 trades, is up 114 places
- Pinterst Inc, the next largest mover is up 95 places to eighth with $765 million and 200 trades
- Tesla with $480 million and 285 trades is down 11 places
- Nvida with $470 million and 255 trades is up 8 places
- Notable movers include Broadcom, US Bancorp and Enterprise Product Partners
TRS on EU Equities
Next the twenty most active names in EUR.
- Hermes, the fashion group in top place with > $4.7 billion from 1,619 trades, is up 12 places
- LVMH in second with > $2.2 billion from 2,485 trades, is up 16 places
- Vivendi in third with > $2 billion and 1,661 trades
- The only Financials in the list are Allianz, Axa, BBVA and SocGen
- Notable movers are Bureau Veritas, Deutshe Post, SPIE, BBVA, Kering and SocGen
- TotalEngergies the only faller in the top 20, down 6 places to 14th with $1.2 billion from 2,402 trades
TRS on UK Equities
Next the twenty most active UK names.
- London Stock Exchange in top place with > $2.5 billion from 1,861 trades, is up 6 places
- Shell in second with > $2.4 billion from 1,792 trades, is up 10 places
- BP in third with > $2.3 billion from 1,852 trades, also up 10 places
- Notable movers in the list are JD Sports, Tritax and Travis Perkins
TRS on JPY Equities
Next the twenty most active JPY names.
- Mitsui O.S.K Lines, the transport company, in top place with > $580 million from 53 trades, is up 1,060 places!
- Tokyo Electron in second with > $427 million from 624 trades, is up 6 places
- Advantest Corp in third with > $400 million from 48 trades, is up 163 places
- Notable movers include Tokyo Fudosan, Screen Holdings, Shiseido, Recruit Hldgs and East Japan Railway
- No obvious Financials in this list (Daiwa is 56, Mizuho 58, MUFG 64)
TRS on AUD Equities
And before we end, lets’ also take a look at AUD.
- ANZ in top place with > $418 million from 766 trades, is up 10 places
- CBA in second with > $352 milion from 566 trades, is up 2 places
- Pilbara Minerals with > $294 million from 561 trades
- Notable movers are Whitehaven Coal, Liontown Resources, Woodside Energgy, Goodman Group
In Summary
- There is a lot of data available from the US SEC SBSDRs.
- SBSDRView provides new transparency on OTC Derivatives in Credit & Equity
- Our Most Active view highlights the names that trade most frequently each day/week/month
- Providing new information and insights
- Please contact us, if you are interested in using SBSDRView.