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PRESS RELEASE

ANNOUNCING NUMTEL, THE NEW INDEX OF BORSA ITALIANA
FOR NUOVO MERCATO SHARES

The new benchmark available as from 2 January 2001

Borsa Italiana Spa announces that, as from 2 January 2001, it will begin publishing the indices for the Nuovo Mercato, calculated with the same method used for the general indices of the Electronic Share Market.

In particular the following will be published:

1. NUMTEL (basis 17.6.1999 = 1.000) - Index for all shares listed on the Nuovo Mercato. It will be calculated during the continuous trading phase with a frequency of one minute, based on the prices of the last trades concluded on each component share, according to the method used for the MIBTEL general index.

2. NUMEX (basis 17.6.1999 = 1.000) - Index for all shares listed on the Nuovo Mercato. It will be calculated once a day at the end of the trading session, using the official price (volume weighted average price of all trades) of all the components, similarly to the MIB index.

3. NUMEX-R (basis 17.6.1999 = 1.000) - Index for all shares listed on the Nuovo Mercato. It will be calculated once a day at the end of the trading session, using the reference price (volume weighted average price of the last 10% traded shares) of all the components, as done for the MIB-R index.

For the After Hours market it will be published an index (NUMTEL-s) that adopts the structure of the NUMTEL index determined during the continuous trading phase of the TAH-NM market with a frequency of one minute, based on the prices of the last trades concluded on each component.

It is pointed out that, unlike the method used for the general indices calculated for the Electronic Share Market, the updating of the weights is contemplated at quarterly intervals - coming into effect on the first Stock Market opening day in the months of January, April, July and October - in order to assimilate the variations in the capitalisation of the shares that make up the baskets which, considering the volatility of share prices and the rate of new listings, could be particularly important.

All Nuovo Mercato indices will be of the "open" type, to allow the insertion of new listed shares and the exclusion of cancelled securities on any day of the year.

Milan, 20 December 2000