Since its launch on September 25, 1990, more than 8.7 million CME Nikkei 225 futures contracts, representing a notional value of $546 billion, have traded at CME. In addition to the CME Nikkei 225 futures, the CME equity product line includes futures and options on futures on many of the world’s most widely recognized indexes, such as the S&P 500®, the NASDAQ-100® and the Russell 2000®. CME equity futures have been instrumental in driving further growth and liquidity in the underlying equity markets.
“When CME introduced this contract 15 years ago, U.S. institutional investors were primarily focused on domestic equity markets,” observed CME Chairman Terry Duffy. “CME had the foresight to realize that in a global financial market, there were significant markets and opportunities outside the U.S. This ability to anticipate ever-changing market needs and develop innovative financial products is what has propelled CME into a global leadership position in financial services.”
“We are pleased to mark this significant anniversary of our Nikkei 225 futures and, importantly, our longstanding relationship with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun,” said CME Chief Executive Officer Craig Donohue. “The launch of Nikkei 225 futures at CME represented our first foray into non-U.S. index products. Since then we have greatly expanded our ability to grow our business globally. Today, CME is the largest and most diverse financial exchange in the world, and we are the dominant exchange for equity derivatives products. The growth of our Nikkei 225 market has provided a strong foundation for additional international indexes at CME.”
CME launched a second, yen-denominated Nikkei 225 futures contract in February 2004, the first such contract to be offered for trading during non-Asian business hours. In its first full year of trading, average daily volume for the Yen-denominated futures contract was 2,930 contracts traded compared to 594 contracts traded in its launch year.
“In 2004, we strengthened our alliance with NKS and for the first time listed CME Nikkei 225 futures -- both Yen- and Dollar-denominated contracts -- electronically,” said Leo Melamed, CME Chairman Emeritus and Senior Policy Advisor. “With the addition of electronic access, trading volume increased from an average daily volume of 3,000 in 2003 to more than 6,200 contracts per day in 2005. Earlier this month, we set a number of new records, including an all time daily volume record of more than 43,000 dollar-denominated contracts on Sept. 7 and an open interest record of nearly 77,000 contracts on September 8.”
In recent years, CME has taken a number of steps to successfully raise its presence in Asia. CME introduced an Asian Incentive Programs, targeting traders in the region, and launched an Asian telecommunications hub, which substantially reduces connectivity fees for market users,in Singapore in June 2005.
The Nikkei 225 stock index, compiled and published by Nihon Keizai Shimbun (NKS), Japan’s leading financial information and publishing company, is Japan's most widely followed and frequently quoted index of stock market performance and has been calculated continuously since Sept. 7, 1950. The 225 components of the Nikkei Stock Average are among the most actively traded issues on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange that together had combined a value of $1.94 trillion.