NEW YORK, March 25, 2002 - Dow Jones Indexes today announced it is expanding its Country Titans family by adding blue-chip indexes for seven European countries: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
The Dow Jones France Titans 30, Dow Jones Germany Titans 30, Dow Jones Italy Titans 30, Dow Jones Netherlands Titans 30, Dow Jones Spain Titans 30, Dow Jones Sweden Titans 30, and Dow Jones Switzerland Titans 30 will be launched on April 12, 2002.
Michael A. Petronella, managing director of Dow Jones Indexes said, "The Dow Jones Country Titans are created because of demand from the marketplace resulting from the exclusive nature
of existing exchange-traded fund licenses. With adding seven indexes to the existing Country Titans family we compliment our blue-chip series of indexes which allows investors to allocate assets and switch easily from countries to regions and to global products."
Dow Jones Indexes expects exchange-traded funds to be launched on some of the new Country Titans indexes later this year.
The stocks selected for each Dow Jones Country Titans index are the largest and most liquid securities in their corresponding market. With 30 liquid stocks per index, each index will be easy to use as the basis for investment products. With a market capitalization between 98,195,534,777 and 532,163,978,164 US dollars/ 112,242,709,924 and 608,291,682,190 Euro the indexes represent between 48% and 68% of their respective market capitalization (as of March 8, 2002). The Dow Jones Country Titans indexes are free-float market capitalization weighted and weights are capped at 10% to prevent dominance by any individual company.
The indexes will be distributed on a real-time basis through major market data vendors, starting on April 12. Historical data on the Dow Jones Country Titans indexes will be available back to December 31, 1991, with a base value of 100.
Other countries included in the Dow Jones Country Titans series are Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
Further information on the Dow Jones Country Titans Indexes will be available at the launch date on April 12 at www.djindexes.com.
Full component lists of the seven Country Titans are available at the following links:
http://www.djindexes.com/downloads/xlspages/France.xls
http://www.djindexes.com/downloads/xlspages/Sweden.xls
http://www.djindexes.com/downloads/xlspages/Italy.xls
http://www.djindexes.com/downloads/xlspages/Switzerland.xls
http://www.djindexes.com/downloads/xlspages/Netherlands.xls
http://www.djindexes.com/downloads/xlspages/Spain.xls
http://www.djindexes.com/downloads/xlspages/Germany.xls
These components will be effective when the indexes are launched
April 12, 2002.