STOXX Limited, the leading provider of European equity indexes, today announced that the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 has been licensed to HSBC to serve as the basis for an exchange-traded fund, which will be available on the London Stock Exchange tomorrow.
"Since its launch in 1998, the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Index has become a well-accepted, rules based and transparent tool for market participants to measure and access the performance of the euro zone's leading companies," said Ricardo Manrique, chief executive officer, STOXX Ltd. "By licensing the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Index, HSBC solidifies their new lineup of ETFs by adding the leading pan-euro index to their product platform."
Farley Thomas, global head of wholesale at HSBC Global Asset Management said "HSBC is prioritizing the launch of ETFs tracking the most popular indexes by ETF assets under management. The Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Index is by far the most popular index in the European ETF industry."
Launched on February 28, 1998, the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Index represents 50 supersector leaders in the 12 euro zone countries Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. As of October 2, 2009, the index was up 16.42% for the year.
The Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Index is weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization, and each component's weight is capped at 10% of the index's total free-float market capitalization. The index captures approximately 60% of the free-float market capitalization of the Dow Jones EURO STOXX TMI Index. Daily historical data are available back to December 31, 1986.
For more information on the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Index please visit www.stoxx.com.