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:
New York: +1-212-597-5720 Frankfurt: +49-69-29725-290