FTSE International & NOREX Announce Launch Of New Stock Market Index

FTSE International and NOREX, the Nordic Exchanges Alliance, jointly announce today the launch of the FTSE NOREX 30 Index on 30 September 1999. This new index will track the performance of the 30 largest and most liquid Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish companies. Futures and Options based on the FTSE NOREX 30 will also start trading on the OM Exchanges in London and Stockholm from 30 September 1999 and will be made available to all members of the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. The Oslo Stock Exchange also aims at listing this first NOREX product on the same date. This new real-time index will be calculated by FTSE International and will be available via major data vendors. The development and ongoing management of the index will be overseen by an advisory committee of senior international and local market practitioners. Tyge Rasmussen, Managing Director of the Copenhagen Exchange and President of NOREX says, "We are delighted to be working with FTSE International on this new index. Their extensive experience of real time indices will be invaluable to this project, and the planned, transparent design and operation of the index can only bring benefits to NOREX and its members. We will also be offering a number of value added services to help investors, such as the ability to trade over 90% of the index constituents on the automated SAXESS system and the possibility of offering margin offsets versus domestic indices such as the OMX." Tyge Rasmussen also said " the launch of the FTSE NOREX 30 Index comes shortly after the Oslo Stock Exchange decided to commence negotiations to join the NOREX alliance. It is a further manifestation of the NOREX alliances dynamism and its ability to deliver efficient solutions to serve Nordic and International investors". Mark Makepeace, Managing Director of FTSE International, explains, "The new FTSE NOREX 30 Index has been designed to create a basket of stocks representative of the performance of the Nordic market, providing investors - both local and international - with an important new vehicle for investing in Nordic companies. The new index covers around 80% of the total market capitalisation of the area and will increase the visibility of both the companies in the index and the Nordic market.