Stoxx Indices to be renamed

STOXX Limited, the leading provider of European equity indices, today announced that the “Dow Jones” prefix will be….

removed from the names of all of its indices, effective immediately. Additionally, name changes have been made to the regional indices for Europe, as well as to the theme indices.

“With its innovative approach to regional indexing, STOXX has become the leading European index provider. While the Dow Jones brand contributed to this success in early days, STOXX now finally has the opportunity to grow globally. We are certain that our heritage of innovation and quality will help us repeat the European success on a global level,” said Hartmut Graf, chief executive officer, STOXX Limited. “Today, we are taking the first step towards the future with the removal of the Dow Jones prefix and the restructuring of our index naming conventions.”

The “Dow Jones” prefix is being removed from all STOXX indices to reflect the entity’s new ownership structure: In December 2009, Deutsche Börse and SIX Group acquired the share of STOXX Limited previously owned by Dow Jones & Company. The use of the Dow Jones brand in the names of licensed financial products is permitted until the end of 2010.

In addition to this change, all regional STOXX indices covering the European markets will include “Europe” in their names. Examples are the STOXX Total Market Index, STOXX 50 Index or STOXX 600 Index and their respective sector indices, which will be renamed STOXX Europe Total Market Index, STOXX Europe 50 Index and STOXX Europe 600, respectively. Index names for indices covering the Euro-zone, Asia/Pacific or American regions — like the flagship index EURO STOXX 50, the STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 Index, STOXX Americas 600 Index and their respective sector indices;

as well as the global STOXX Global 1800 Index, remain unchanged. Furthermore all theme indices will include a regional description to reflect their composition, e.g. the STOXX Grand Prix Index and STOXX Football Index will become the STOXX Global Grand Prix Index and STOXX Europe Football Index, respectively. The new naming conventions are meant to provide better regional identification of indices as the STOXX index family will be enhanced globally.

Source: ETFWorld – STOXX