Press

As of September 19, the international derivatives market Eurex will be introducing a futures contract on SMIM®, the Swiss mid-cap index. With this product, Eurex offers investors an efficient and liquid risk management tool for trading with Swiss mid-caps, and meets the rising demand for derivatives in the mid-cap segment.

The SMIM® index belongs to the SMI® index family of SWX Swiss Exchange, comprises a maximum of 30 securities and tracks the most liquid and highly capitalized shares in the Swiss mid-cap segment. The close correlation between the SMIM® and the SPI Extra® enables fund managers to mirror the performance of the SPI® universe without the SMI® securities. A combination of the SMI® and SMIM® futures allows investors 95 percent participation in the performance of the Swiss equity market. Certificates, warrants, and one exchange-traded fund have already been issued on the SMIM® index by a large number of banks.

From the start, liquidity will be ensured for trading in the new future, since market makers will continuously quote prices in the order book as soon as trading begins.

Further information:

The SMIM® Future references the price index in the same way as the SMI®. In order to simplify trading, the SMIM® price index will receive the abbreviation SMIM as of August 2 and be reset at 1000 points, instead of 100 points as of December 31, 1999 (index level times 10). Additional information about the SMIM® index, as well as the rules and regulations for the indices of the SMI® family, is available via the SWX website (www.swx.com/smi).