DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Program trading fell last week on the NYSE Euronext's (NYX) New York Stock Exchange as overall trading declined.

The daily average was 676.2 million out of the 2.59 billion total shares that changed hands, or 26.1%. That is down from the prior week's 31.9% rate, or 1.07 billion of the 3.35 billion shares that traded on average.

The most active NYSE member firms for program trading last week was Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) at 743.9 million for the entire period, followed by Morgan Stanley (MS) at 518 million, Barclays PLC (BCS) at 334.2 million and Deutsche Bank AG (DB) at 291.5 million. The figures were far below the previous week.

Program trading encompasses a wide range of portfolio-trading strategies involving the purchase or sale of a basket of at least 15 stocks.

-By Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357; Kathy.Shwiff@dowjones.com