From today, the Spanish derivatives exchange MEFF has expanded its futures and options contracts to cover all the underlying shares in the IBEX 35, and PRISA.
This means MEFF now provides 100% coverage of the Index’s capitalisation, both with futures and with options.
26 new stock futures contracts and 20 new stock option contracts will be listed, providing investors with 36 different underlying stocks to manage their portfolios.
Trading in stock options at MEFF began in February 1993, with the traded volume in 2006 reaching 12.4 million contracts, 14% up on the previous year.
Stock futures were launched in January 2001 and 21.2 million contracts were traded last year, up 13% on 2005.
The new options will be to buy and sell (“call” and “put”, respectively) and American style, meaning that they can be exercised at any time from being contracted until their expiration date, just like the existing contracts.
Each contract will represent 100 shares of the company in question (except for short term adjustments due to mergers, new capital issues, etc.) and the quotation of the premiums is in euros per share, with two decimal places, just like the shares.
The futures are also traded for contracts of 100 shares, with the price in euros per share, with two decimal places.
Settlement for both products is by delivery, with the expiration date being the third Friday of the months of March, June, September and December, with a minimum of four contract months being open for trading.