The EURO STOXX 50 is a stock index of Eurozone stocks designed by STOXX, an index provider owned by Deutsche Börse Group. The index is composed of 50 stocks from 11 countries in the Eurozone. EURO STOXX 50 represents Eurozone blue-chip companies considered as leaders in their respective sectors. It is made up of fifty of the largest and most liquid stocks. The index futures and options on the EURO STOXX 50, traded on Eurex, are among the most liquid products in Europe and the world. The EURO STOXX 50 was introduced on 26 February 1998. The EURO STOXX 50 Index represents some of the largest companies in the Eurozone in terms of free-float market capitalization. The index captures about 60% of the free-float market capitalization of the EURO STOXX Total Market Index (TMI), which in turn covers about 95% of the free-float market capitalization of the represented countries. The EURO STOXX 50 is one of the most liquid indices for the Eurozone. Historical performance EURO STOXX 50 was quoted only starting 1998 but its prices were calculated retroactively back to the year 1986. The base value is 1000 points, referenced on 31 December 1991. The following table shows the end-of-year values of the EURO STOXX 50 index since 1986. Calculation The calculation of the indices employ the Laspeyres formula, which measures price changes against a fixed base quantity weight: where: vcc:FdDF t = Time the index is computed n = Number of companies in the index pit = Price of company (i) at time (t) sit = Number of shares of company (i) at time (t) ffit = Free-float factor of company (i) at time (t) cfit = Weighting cap factor of company (i) at time (t) xit = Exchange rate from local currency into index currency for company (i) at time (t) Mt = Free-float market capitalization of the index at time (t) Dt = Divisor of the index at time (t) Changes in weights due to corporate actions are distributed proportionally across all index components. The index divisors, which is adjusted to maintain the continuity of the values of the index across changes due to corporate actions, are calculated as follows: where ΔMCt+1 = The difference between the closing market capitalization of the index and the adjusted closing market capitalization of the index: for companies with corporate actions effective at time (t+1), the free-float market capitalization is