Release: #4665-02
For Release: July 1, 2002

CFTC Staff Allows Eurex Deutschland’s Futures Contract Based on the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 Index and JSE Securities Exchange South Africa’s Futures Contract on the FTSE/JSE 40 Top Companies Index to be Offered and Sold in the United States

Washington, D.C. -- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Office of General Counsel (OGC) issued no-action letters on June 28, 2002, permitting the offer and sale in the United States of Eurex Deutschland’s (Eurex) futures contract based on the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 Index (Global Titans 50) and JSE Securities Exchange South Africa’s (JSE) futures contract based on the FTSE/JSE 40 Top Companies Index (FTSE/JSE Top 40).

The Global Titans 50 and the FTSE/JSE Top 40 are both broad-based, modified “free-float” capitalization-weighted indices. The Global Titans 50 consists of the 50 largest stocks in the Dow Jones World Index. Based on data supplied by Eurex, the total market capitalization of the Global Titans 50 was U.S. $5.6 trillion as of October 16, 2001. The FTSE/JSE Top 40 is designed to reflect the overall performance of the stocks of the largest companies traded on JSE. Based on data supplied by JSE, the total market capitalization of the FTSE/JSE Top 40 was U.S. $117.5 billion as of December 31, 2001.

• For information on foreign exchange-traded stock index futures contracts pending no-action approval with the CFTC's OGC, see the Foreign Instrument Approvals & Exemptions Backgrounder at www.cftc.gov/opa/backgrounder/opapart30.htm.