Australian Stock Exchange And Standard & Poor's Introduce The S&P/ASX Indices

Standard and Poors (S&P) and the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) are pleased to announce the list of constituents for the new S&P/ASX Benchmark Indices. The introduction of the indices is to become effective on 3 April, 2000. The new Benchmark indices will be as follows: The S&P/ASX 100 represents 81.96 % of the ASX's domestic capitalisation; The S&P/ASX 200 represents 88.21% of the ASX's domestic Capitalisation; The S&P/ASX 300 represents 89.99% of the ASX's domestic Capitalisation. The new indices have been specifically designed to meet the benchmarking needs of the Australian investing community. Index eligibility is based on market capitalisation, with an adjustment made for liquidity (for a detailed explanation of the liquidity calculation see www.asx.com.au). As announced last year, on 3 April the new All Ordinaries Index will shift from the current 251 companies to 500 companies, and eligibility will be based solely on market capitalisation. The All Ordinaries will provide a measurement of the overall price performance of the market, and will represent about 97.7 percent of the total domestic market capitalisation. The composition of the indices will continue to be reviewed quarterly, with the next review taking effect on 1 July, 2000. Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., provides financial, economic and investment information and analytical services to the global financial community. More then US$1 trillion is indexed to S&P indices. S&P calculates and maintains the S&P Global 1200 Index, which includes the S&P Euro and Euro Plus for Continental Europe, the S&P/TSE 60 for Canada, the S&P 500 for the U.S., the S&P/TOPIX 150 for Japan, the S&P Asia Pacific 100, the Latin America 40 and the United Kingdom 150. S&P also publishes the S&P MidCap 400, S&P SmallCap 600, S&P SuperComposite 1500 and S&P REIT Composite for the U.S. and the S&P/TSE Canadian MidCap and S&P/TSE Canadian SmallCap Indices. Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading information services provider meeting worldwide needs in education, business, finance, the professions and government. The corporation employs 16,500 people located in more than 400 offices in 32 countries. Sales in 1999 were $4.0 billion.