Further to the recommendation of the Index Commission, the SWX Swiss Exchange has decided to remove the shares of Xstrata (ISIN: GB0031411001) from the Swiss Performance Index (SPI®) as of 19 January 2004 owing to insufficient liquidity. Since Xstrata is heavily weighted in the SPI®, in order to prevent major price fluctuations its exclusion will take place over five days, rather than immediately, as is the norm. Xstrata's weighting will be reduced on a straight-line basis by 20 % a day from 12-16 January 2004. The company will cease to be represented in the SPI® from 19 January 2004. The SPI® Regulations have been extended to ensure more effective regulation of stocks which have their secondary listing on the SWX Swiss Exchange. These regulations can be found at
http://www.swx.com/indices_en.html
