LIFFE Announces Its First 15 Universal Stock Futures

The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE), the first exchange in the world to introduce futures contracts on individual international equities, announced further details of the contracts. The initial list of companies - the LIFFE 15 - on which the Universal Stock Futures contracts will be traded from January 29 2001 is:

In USD: AT&T Corporation , Cisco Systems Inc , Citigroup Inc , Exxon Mobil Corporation , and Merck & Co. Inc.

In EUR: Alcatel SA , Deutsche Bank AG , Deutsche Telekom AG , Nokia OYJ and Royal Dutch Petroleum Company.

In GBP: AstraZeneca Plc, BP Amoco Plc, Glaxo Wellcome Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and Vodafone Group Plc.

LIFFE will extend this range of companies over the coming year, choosing additional stocks to meet the needs of the Exchange’s customer base and to extend coverage across the most actively traded sectors and stocks worldwide. Brian Williamson, LIFFE’s Chairman said, "Universal Stock Futures represent a revolution in global equity trading. They will be easy, cheap and efficient to trade."

Hugh Freedberg, LIFFE’s Chief Executive said, "We have selected global blue-chip stocks from the five most heavily capitalised and actively traded industry sectors. The LIFFE 15 covers companies listed in three of the world’s reserve currencies, US dollars, ?uro and sterling, with a combined market capitalisation of US$2.5 trillion. We will provide our international customers with easy access to these stocks through LIFFE CONNECT™, and they will benefit from one set of rules and regulations with direct access to a unified clearing and settlement system."