ZURICH, Switzerland, Feb. 25, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- STOXX Ltd., the leading European index provider, celebrates the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Dow Jones STOXX Indexes. The first pan-European indexes under STOXX brand were launched on February 26, 1998.
The Dow Jones STOXX Indexes were introduced in advance of the European Monetary Union and the introduction of the euro to provide market participants with transparent and strictly rules-based regional indexes for Europe. The Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 was the first index to measure the performance of the Euro zone. Today, STOXX Ltd. is a joint venture of Deutsche Boerse AG, Dow Jones & Company and Swiss Financial Markets Services AG (merger of SWX Group, SIS Group and Telekurs Group).
"Our visionary innovation of regional European indexes combined with the right business model is in fact a success story of its own and set new standards within the world of indexing and European integration. Dow Jones STOXX Indexes have always been and still are important catalyzers to diversify index-linked investing as well as cross boarder trading," commented Werner Buerki, chairman of the Supervisory Board of STOXX Ltd. "By including the Dow Jones STOXX indexes into the Dow Jones World index family we immediately laid the foundation stone for further, global expansion," he continued. "Today, the Dow Jones STOXX Index family includes the Dow Jones STOXX Global 1800 Indexes."
The Dow Jones STOXX indexes emerged as the standard underlying for European index-based investment products such as exchange traded funds (ETFs), futures & options, structured products as well as passively managed investment funds. Since April 2000, the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Index and the Dow Jones STOXX 50 Index serve as the underlying for the first equity ETFs that were ever launched in Europe. Currently, there are 124 ETFs -- including the top three ETFs in Europe by assets under management -- based on Dow Jones STOXX Indexes.
Today the indexes are available to market participants worldwide. Options on the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Index show the highest open interest across Europe and the second highest worldwide.
Milestones of the first decade of pan-European indexes by STOXX Ltd. include:
June 1998 - launch of first pan-European sector indexes September 2000 - first index provider to implement free-float market capitalization in all of its indexes October 2001 - launch of Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability Indexes July 2004 - launch of the global Dow Jones STOXX 1800 index family April 2005 - launch of Dow Jones STOXX Select Dividend indexes, the first European index family selected by dividend yield - launch of VSTOXX, the first index to track volatility in the euro zone September 2006 - launch of the Dow Jones STOXX IPO indexes, first index series ever to track European IPOs over three different time horizons - launch of the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 BuyWrite Index June 2007 - launch of the Dow Jones STOXX Strong Style indexes to track the style-purest companies in Europe and the euro zone - launch of Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Leveraged and Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Short indexes July 2007 - launch of DJ STOXX Global 1800 REITS index family October 2007 - launch of 18 Dow Jones STOXX 600 Supersector Short indexes
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Journalists may e-mail questions regarding this press release to PR-Indexes@dowjones.com or contact Dow Jones Indexes/STOXX press office:
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