FRANKFURT, June 30, 2004 – Dow Jones Indexes announced that it has licensed its blue-chip index, Dow Jones Italy Titans 30, to Eurex, the world’s largest derivatives exchange.
The Dow Jones Italy Titans 30 comprises the 30 largest and most liquid companies in the Italian market. The index is highly correlated to the MIB 30, and the liquidity of its component stocks makes it an ideal underlying for futures contracts.

"This license agreement proves the concept of our Country Titans blue-chip series," said Lars Hamich, managing director of STOXX Ltd., the joint venture responsible for Dow Jones Indexes' business development in Europe and Asia. "Due to its replicability and strictly rules-based methodology and data transparency, the Dow Jones Italy Titans 30 index is an ideal proxy to gain exposure to Italian large-cap companies. The futures contract will also be an effective instrument to hedge portfolios that are currently benchmarked against the MIB 30 index."

The Dow Jones Italy Titans 30 Index was launched in April 2002 in response to market demand for an alternative Italian blue-chip index because of the exclusive nature of existing derivative and exchange-traded fund licenses.

The index is part of the Dow Jones Country Titans index series, which also is comprised of the Dow Jones Australia Titans 30; Dow Jones Canada 40; Dow Jones France Titans 30; Dow Jones Germany Titans 30; Dow Jones Hong Kong Titans 30; Dow Jones Japan Titans 100; Dow Jones Netherlands Titans 30; Dow Jones RusIndex Titans 10; Dow Jones South Africa Titans 30; Dow Jones Spain Titans 30; Dow Jones Sweden Titans 30; Dow Jones Switzerland Titans 30; and Dow Jones U.K. Titans 50 Index.