Borsa Italiana will introduce 'long term options' on IDEM, its derivatives market, with effect from 11 July.

The new contracts will allow investors to take positions on the S&P/MIB Index with maturities of up to three years. The new contracts to be listed will have semi-annual expiries on the June and December  cycle.

For options which expire in the next 12 months (the first 6 expiries), 15 exercise prices will be available on both the call and put series, with a 500 index points interval.

With regard to the four new maturities over one year, a minimum of 21 prices will be available on the call as well as on the put series with intervals of 1,000 index points.

In the first semester of 2005, trading volume on IDEM increased significantly, and on 14 June hit a new record - 269.369 contracts were traded for a total turnover of EUR 9.6 billion.

As for index products, new all-time highs have been achieved in terms of volumes: FIB, the futures contract on the S&P/MIB index, traded 57,183 contracts on 16 March 2005, while the MIBO options contracts on the S&P/MIB index traded 28,805 contracts on 18 April.