A new way to trade small-and mid-caps will soon be available via NYSE Euronext’s European OTC derivatives business.
Futures contracts based on the Russell Europe SMID 300 Index launches 1 October on Bclear, NYSE Liffe’s wholesale derivatives service.
Index provider Russell Investments’ instrument contains Europe’s 300 most liquid small- and mid-caps.
Scott Stark, head of Russell Indexes Europe, said the index had been designed with considerable input from the trading community to ensure ease of use in the trading environment.
“We focused on the underlying liquidity and at the amount of time that it would take to invest in the constituents so that we could come up with the easiest way for investors to gain exposure to this sector of historically low volumes,” said Stark.
To build the index, Russell consulted with a number of large market participants, including UBS, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Barclays. The result, Stark claims, is the first index of highly liquid constituents covering the small- and mid-cap European equity markets.
“With the launch of this futures contract on the Russell Europe SMID 300 Index we are providing our customers with a unique product to access Europe’s small- and mid-cap companies.” said Ade Cordell, executive director of equity derivatives, NYSE Liffe.
Since launch in 2005, Bclear has processed €15.4 trillion and over 1.4 billion equity derivative contracts. Bclear is NYSE Liffe’s service for processing and clearing OTC derivatives within a Recognised Investment Exchange and Recognised Clearing House.