Updated Information: Eurex Cancels Trades In Futures On Euro STOXX 50 And STOXX 50 Indices

The international derivatives market Eurex cancelled around 200 trades in futures on the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50 and Dow Jones STOXX 50 indices on Wednesday. The cancellation only affected certain trades that occurred within a 45 second period at 5.48 p.m. According to Eurex, order entries by market participants had had an impact to the extent that orderly trading in the above-mentioned derivatives was not insured. As a consequence Eurex cancelled the trades ex officio. Eurex informed all participants that the respective transactions were placed in the status "Under Investigation" immediately after the trades had occurred.

Rejecting a report in the British newspaper "The Times" Eurex stated that trading neither in these products nor in the market as a whole was interrupted at any time. Also the not orderly trading did not result from a single order entry at a wrong price or of a wrong size. The Eurex system prevents such errors through various safeguards introduced in May this year after consultation with the market. These safeguards include maximum order sizes per product as well as price limit validation.

Following these order entries prices for the Euro STOXX futures fell from 2400 points to a low of 493 points and rose back to the previous level within a minute's time from 5.48 p.m. to 5.49 p.m.

In the Euro STOXX 50 futures trades were cancelled that traded below 2,342 points for the December 2002 expiry, below 2,356 points for the March 2003 expiry and below 2,328 for the June 2003 expiry. In the STOXX 50 futures trades were annulled that traded below 2,447 points for the December 2002 expiry, below 2,446 points for the March 2003 expiry and below 2,434 for the June 2003 expiry.