UNITED STATES June 04 2014 11:35 AM

NEW YORK (Scrap Register): CME Group May metals volume fell sharply from a year ago but rose slightly from April, according to data released by the exchange operator Tuesday.

Metals volume averaged 324,000 contracts per day in May, down 27% from 444,000 in May 2013, CME Group said. However, the May volume was 1% higher than an average of 321,000 from April.

The rolling average for the three-month period ending in May was average daily metals volume of 342,000, CME Group said. This was down from 351,000 and 355,000 for the three-month periods ending in April and March but up from 318,000 for the period ending in February.

Overall, volume for all CME Group markets averaged 13 million contracts in May, a gain of 6% from April although down 12% from May 2013. Slightly more than half of the overall volume was in interest-rate products at 7.6 million contracts per day, up 27% from April although down 3% year-on-year.

The highest overall volume of 2014 so far occurred on May 28, when 20.1 million contracts traded, CME Group said. Year-to-date overall volume of 13.2 million contracts per day is up 4% from the same time frame in 2013.