Press

Eurex, the international derivatives market, is continuing to expand its offerings in trading with equity-based products. As of March 24, 2003, the world's leading equity options market will of-fer equity options on the Dutch equity IHC Caland, including LEPOs (Low Exercise Price Op-tions). As of the same date, the derivatives market will also extend the maximum lifetime for op-tions on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 index from currently five years to eight years.

With the introduction of the new option on IHC Caland, which was included in the AEX index on March 4, Eurex will have options on all 24 Dutch AEX equities to offer on the Eurex platform.

The market interest in options on European equities is rising steadily: With turnover of 584 billion euros, in terms of the nominal value of the contracts traded, Eurex is the world's leading equity options exchange. This corresponds to a contract volume of more than 143 million contracts tra-ded at Eurex in 2002, representing a growth in volume of more than 12 percent compared with 2001.

Effective March 24, the derivatives market will extend the maximum terms for options on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 through the addition of three further expiration dates in the December cycle (with terms of 72, 84 and 96 months for the years from 2008 to 2010). The new Eurex specification on expirations reflects the increasing demand from participants for options with longer terms, also in the off-exchange (over-the-counter, OTC) market. The option on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 index is the second-most heavily traded index product at Eurex in the meantime, after the corresponding futures contract. During the first 53 trading days of the year, 13.6 million options on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 index were already traded, over 150 percent more than in the same period of 2002.