030115 stock futures

On Monday 20th January 2003, Borsa Italiana's Idem Market will launch two new stock futures on individual shares, Generali and STMicroelectronics.

The first IDEM stock futures on Eni, Enel, Telecom Italia, Tim and Unicredito began trading on July 22nd 2002.

Market liquidity will be enhanced, as for the other futures contracts, by the presence of two market makers, Caboto Intesa and Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, who are required to display bids and offers on a continuous basis.

The contracts will trade on a monthly cycle for the two near months and the nearest two months of the March, June, September and December cycle. The last trading day will be the third Friday of the expiration month.

Trading hours will be from 9.15am to 5.40pm the same as for all derivatives products.

Since July 22nd 2002 - when trading in stock futures started - to December 30th 2002, almost 60.000 standard contracts have been recorded on the five instruments. The TIM futures was the most traded (24.847 standard contracts), followed by Telecom Italia (10.897), ENI (10.463), Unicredito Italiano (9.615) and Enel (4.049).

Two new IDEM Stock Futures main features:

Underlying

Generali, STMicroelectronics

Minimum Lot

Generali: 100 shares

STMicroelectronics: 100 shares

Expiry date

Third Friday of each expiry month.

Last trading day

Expiry day at 9:30 a.m.

Expiration

Always four expiries: two nearest monthly expiries and two nearest quarterly expiries of the March, June, September and December cycle.

Quotations

In euros

Settlement price

Established by the clearing and settlement organisation (Cassa di Compensazione e Garanzia)

Settlement

Physical delivery

Trading hours

09:15 a.m. - 5:40 p.m.

Information regarding characteristics and trading of the new instruments are available on the Borsa Italiana website: www.borsaitaliana.com.

A Single Stock Future is a contract in which the buyer/seller is obliged to buy/sell a specific quantity of an underlying asset at a specific future date, at the price determined at the time of the transaction. The number of shares in the stock futures contracts will be the same as for IDEM's stock options contracts.

The notional value of a contract is calculated as the product of the price and the number of shares underlying the individual contract.

The contracts will be phisically settled. Settlement will be on the exercise date of the underlying securities at a settlement price which shall be the opening-auction price of the shares on the expiry date.

Market liquidity will be enhanced by the presence of Market Makers who are required to display bids and offers on a continuous basis.

All transactions will be cleared and settled by Cassa di Compensazione e Garanzia, the Italian clearing house which is part of Borsa Italiana Group.

Among the advantages offered by IDEM Stock Futures is the possibility of taking short positions on a stock without having borrowed them.

Another advantage is related to the capital needed to trade in these securities.

Leveraging allows you to post a percentage of the contract value (initial margin) without having to fund the entire position.

Another characteristic which makes the IDEM Stock Futures so attractive to investors is related to the cost savings of clearing. The margin integration system of "Cassa di Compensazione e Garanzia" (CC&G) which is the Italian Clearing House for the IDEM market, enables it to calculate integrated margins for stock futures and stock options with the same underlying instrument.

The introduction of Single Stock Futures extend the range of derivative products available on the IDEM market which includes FIB - Futures on the Mib30 index, futures on the Midex index, the miniFIB, the options on Mib30 index and stock options.

The launch of Single Stock Futures in July 2002 has been made possible following the recent introduction of the new trading platform which features OM Click technology designed specifically for the Derivatives Market of Borsa Italiana.

The platform, which became operational on April 22nd, has been developed by the Sweden's OM in collaboration with BIt Systems, the information technology subsidiary of Borsa Italiana.

Milan, 15 January 2003