- Appointment of New Executive Officer
- Acquisition of Treasury Stocks
- Development of the TOPIX Futures Market
- TSE Community Meeting in Hokuriku
Appointment of New Executive Officer
The TSE Board of Directors announced the appointment of a new executive officer, Tomoyoshi Uranishi. Mr. Uranishi will be in charge of international affairs, and other special projects such as policy recommendations.
Acquisition of Treasury Stocks
As part of its capital strategy for listing its stock in FY2005, which is set out in the company's business objectives, TSE decided at its General Meeting of Shareholders on June 24 to acquire treasury stock at a maximum of 300,000 shares and for a total maximum price of 8.5 billion yen. At the Board of Directors Meeting it was decided that of the shareholders who approved the acquisition at the General Meeting of Shareholders, stock will be acquired from those who agreed with the final acquisition terms. TSE will acquire 218,900 shares on August 29 at a total acquisition price of 6,083,231,000 yen.
Development of the TOPIX Futures Market
September 2003 marks the 15th year anniversary since the founding of the TSE TOPIX Futures market, which was established on September 3, 1988. Trading began fifteen years ago against a background of increased need by institutional investors to hedge price movement risk, and TOPIX Futures has steadily developed ever since. In particular, recent years have seen a remarkable increase in the trading volume and open interest of this product, and TOPIX Futures has established itself as Japan's representative index future.
Trading volumes for TOPIX Futures decreased only a few years after the product's inception, but they have since rebounded and for the first half of this year daily average trading volume was 37,200 contracts per day, about 2.2 times greater than the value in 2000, when the present upward trend in volume began. This phenomenon is indicative of three major points concerning TOPIX Futures. First, recognition of TOPIX as a benchmark for index investment has increased. Second, after a major change in the composition of the Nikkei index in April 2000, many institutional investors have moved to TOPIX for its continuity. And finally, third, TSE has created a trading and settlement system that adequately reflects the needs of market users.
Open interest levels have been impressive, too. Since 2001, as more institutional investors and other managers of large stock portfolios have increasingly chosen TOPIX as their benchmark index, open interest on TOPIX futures has exceeded open interest on Nikkei 225 futures since 2001. Furthermore, open interest levels at the end of June of this year, reaching approximately 276,000 contracts, are about 1.8 times greater than they were in 2002.
Finally, the composition of TOPIX futures users has changed dramatically as well. In 1989, nearly 80% of users were securities companies, but both foreign investors and trust banks have increased their share of the market greatly. TOPIX futures is now firmly established among a wide variety of market users as a tool for hedging and dealing.
Considering these remarkable accomplishments, TSE will host an anniversary reception for trading participants and institutional investors on September 2nd in its Arrows facilities.
For the further development of the TOPIX futures market, TSE will strive to listen to the opinions of market participants and provide a market that is more user friendly and better accommodates the needs of its users.
TSE Community Meeting in Hokuriku
TSE's community meetings began in Nagoya in January of last year. The seventh TSE community meeting will be held in Kanazawa on September 3 for local listed companies in the three prefectures of Hokuriku (Ishikawa, Toyama, and Fukui).
