ZURICH, Oct. 27, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- STOXX Ltd., the leading European index provider, today launched two indexes that measure the performance of the 10 new member states that joined the European Union in May 2004. They are: the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged Total Market Index (TMI), a broad benchmark index, and the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged 15, a blue-chip index. Both indexes cover companies headquartered in the 10 new EU member states.
"The Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged 15 index, which is derived from the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged TMI, was created to meet the increasing demand from European investors for a transparent, rules-based index that is integrated in a consistent regional index family," said Lars Hamich, managing director of STOXX Ltd. "This blue-chip index is suitable to be used as an underlying for financial products such as funds, exchange-traded funds, structured products and derivatives."
He added, "By adding the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged 15 to the existing Dow Jones STOXX blue-chip index family, we further complement the Dow Jones STOXX and Dow Jones Indexes blue-chip index series, which allow investors to allocate assets and switch easily from countries to regions and to global products."
The 15 stocks selected for the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged 15 index are the largest and most liquid securities in the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged TMI. The latter covers 95% of the free-float market capitalization of stocks that are listed in Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Both the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged TMI and the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged 15 index are free-float, market-capitalization weighted. The free-float market capitalization of the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged TMI is EUR 37.2 billion. The Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged 15 blue-chip index covers with EUR 18 billion nearly 50% of the Total Market EU Enlarged Index as of Sept. 30, 2004. Individual component weights of the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged 15 are capped at 15% to prevent dominance of any individual company.
The Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged 15 is part of the Dow Jones STOXX blue-chip series of indexes. The series comprises the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50, the Dow Jones STOXX 50 and the Dow Jones STOXX NORDIC 30.
The indexes are distributed on a real-time basis through major market-data vendors. Historical data on the two new Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged Indexes will be available back to Dec. 31, 2002, with a base value of 100.
The full list of components, including weightings and values of the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged TMI and the Dow Jones STOXX EU Enlarged 15 index, is available on www.stoxx.com.
Journalists may e-mail questions regarding this press release to: PR-Indexes@dowjones.com or contact a member of the Dow Jones Indexes/STOXX public relations team:
Frankfurt: Simona Deckers +49-69-971 428 94 Nicole Wesch +49-69-971 428 93 New York: Sybille A. Reitz +1-212-597 57 35 Karishma Thakkar +1-212-597 57 18