CFTC Staff Allows The Taiwan Futures Exchange’s Futures Contracts Based On The Taiwan Stock Exchange Electronic Sector Index And Finance Sector Index To Be Offered And Sold In The United States

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC's) Office of General Counsel issued a no-action letter on May 16, 2005, permitting the offer and sale in the United States of the Taiwan Futures Exchange’s (TAIFEX’s) futures contracts based on the Taiwan Stock Exchange Electronic Sector Index (TE) and Finance Sector Index (TF).

The TE and TF are broad-based, market capitalization-weighted security indices maintained by the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TSEC). The TE covers all electronics related stocks listed on the TSEC, and the TF covers all finance related TSEC listed stocks. Both Indices exclude preferred stocks, full-delivery stocks and newly listed stocks that are listed for less than one calendar month. Based on data supplied by TAIFEX, the total adjusted market capitalizations of the TE and TF were approximately US$ 195.56 billion and US$ 85.55 billion, respectively, as of November 30, 2004.