25 YEARS OF THE DAX® - THE FACTS
HISTORY OF DEUTSCHE BÖRSE’S
DAX® INDEX
» DAX® was developed by Deutsche Börse AG (formerly the FWB® Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Frankfurt
Stock Exchange) together with the Consortium of German Stock Exchanges (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der
Deutschen Wertpapiertbörsen) and the Börsen-Zeitung newspaper.
» Launched on 1 July 1988 at a starting level of 1,163 points.
» Base date is 30 December 1987 (base level of 1,000 points).
» DAX® charts the segment of blue chips that have been admitted to the Prime Standard. It contains the
30 largest and best-performing companies on the FWB® Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse.
» DAX® is primarily calculated as a performance index, making the DAX® index unique. The main DAX®
index is one of the few large country indices to take into account dividend payments that are reinvested
in addition to pure share price performance, thereby fully reflecting the actual performance of an
investment in the index portfolio. DAX® is one the few national indices with a completely rule-based and
transparent composition.
» In order to qualify for a listing, companies have to have their registered office or operational
headquarters in Germany or else generate a significant proportion of their trading turnover on the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange and have their headquarters in a member state of the EU or EFTA. The
companies also have to be listed in the Prime Standard.
» The composition of DAX® is reviewed once a year in September.
» Fast-entry and fast-exit rules have been in place since 13 August 2002. These allow companies that are
particularly suitable for a listing or that have clearly violated the index criteria to be included in or
removed from the index, on the quarterly rebalancing dates. The new rules ensure that any major
changes in the corporate environment are also promptly mirrored in the index universe.
» As a real-time index, the DAX® index was first recalculated every 60 seconds, then every 15 seconds,
and as of January 2006 every second.
» Until mid-1999, the index calculations were based on prices from Xetra® (Xetra®-DAX) and the Frankfurt
trading floor. The Frankfurt trading floor was the official price source for the DAX® index until 21 June
1999 when Xetra prices became the only price source displayed. The index “left” the trading floor at a
closing level of 5,337 points.
» DAX® is weighted by market capitalization, i.e. the weighting of a single stock relates to its share in the
overall capitalization of the stocks contained in the index. Since June 2002, the DAX® weighting has
included the portion of the share capital of a given category of shares that is designated as free float.
The free float portion must amount to at least 5 percent of the total number of shares. Accumulated
share packages of one more than 5 percent held by one shareholder are not considered free float. The
number of shares making up share capital and the free float factor are updated on a quarterly basis on
the rebalancing date.
» As of 1 July 2006, single stocks could only be weighted up to a maximum of 10 percent. There is a cap
on anything above that.
» The component weighting cap was first introduced on 21 July 1999, yet with a higher initial maximum
weighting of 15 percent per single stock. The cap prevents the index from being dominated by a few
single stocks.
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25 YEARS OF THE DAX® - THE FACTS
DAX® INDEX
» On 1 August 2004, a new set of DAX® rules was introduced. These rules allow changes to be derived
directly from the ranking list, which provides for complete transparency in terms of index composition
decisions based on the market capitalization and the exchange turnover of a company.
» In December 2009 Deutsche Börse AG and SIX become sole shareholders of STOXX Limited after Dow
Jones & Company exits the joint venture. STOXX Limited is the marketing agent for the DAX Indices, in
addition to the STOXX and SMI Indices.
DAX® Calculation
» DAX® is calculated on the basis of the modified index formula devised by Étienne Laspeyres.
» For this purpose, companies are weighted according to their market capitalization.
» DAX® is available as both price return and performance indices. The weightings for a performance index
are calculated based on market capitalization, dividend payments and capital changes.
» Until June 2002, the calculation was based on the market capitalization of all share categories of a
company admitted to trading on the stock exchange. Since then, the calculation has been based solely
on the shares held in free float.
» DAX® index values are calculated and published during the trading hours of the Frankfurt Stock
Exchange, i.e. Monday to Friday from 9.00 a.m. to 5.45 p.m. CET.
Interesting DAX® Facts (May 2013)
» DAX® is one of the most popular underlyings worldwide. In 2012, DAX® futures and options achieved 91
million traded contracts. In terms of index providers, this makes the DAX® and STOXX indices the world’s
third-largest underlyings for traded contracts after KRX Korea Exchange and Dow Jones S&P. (Source:
FIA report)
» Two of the top 3 European ETFs use DAX as underlying: The iShares DAX ETF is the biggest European
ETF in terms of AUM (AUM end of May 2013: EUR 14.4 Bn). The db x-Trackers DAX UCITS ETF is the
top three European ETF in terms of AUM (AUM end of May 2013: EUR 7.3 Bn) (Source: ETFGI Report)
» The daily XETRA trading volume for the 30 DAX® stocks amounts to approx. 3 million € per day in 2012.
» There are seven ETFs on the DAX® index with a total of more than €23 bn in assets under management.
» The DAX® family now consists of 5.600 indices. The number of indices has more than doubled in the
last five years. (There were 2.600 indices when the DAX turned 20.)
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25 YEARS OF THE DAX® - THE FACTS
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DAX® INDEX
DAX® is one of the most popular underlyings worldwide
Structured products on the DAX® (Source: Onvista)
As of 26 June 2013
Total number of products
117.006
Discount certificates
15.677
Bonus certificates
36.409
Guarantee certificates
163
Reverse convertibles
835
Sprint certificates
61
Index and tracker certificates
66
Express certificate
44
Knock-outs
24.979
Warrants
35.923
Other certificates
2.849
Launch of DAX® derivatives on Eurex®
DAX futures
FDAX
23 November 1990
DAX options
ODAX
16 August 1991
DAX® performance since 1 July 1988
At a glance
» Launched on 1 July 1988 with a starting level of 1,163 points
» All-time high: 8557.86 points on 22 May 2013 (As of close on 28 May 2013)
» Highest closing level: 8530.89 on 22 May 2013 (As of close on 28 May 2013)
» Lowest closing level: 1152.38 on 29 August 1988
25 YEARS OF THE DAX® - THE FACTS
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DAX® INDEX
DAX® stocks – a lot of movement, little fluctuation
The historical composition of Deutsche Börse’s DAX® index is a reflection of the development of major German
companies over the last 25 years. Over half of the changes in the composition of the DAX have been the result of
mergers and takeovers.
Upon its launch on 1 July 1988, the DAX comprised the following stocks: Allianz, BASF, Bayer, Bayerische Hypothekenund Wechselbank, Bayerische Vereinsbank, BMW, Commerzbank, Continental, Daimler-Benz, Degussa, Deutsche Bank,
Deutsche Babcock, Deutsche Lufthansa, Dresdner Bank, Feldmühle Nobel, Henkel, Hoechst, Karstadt, Kaufhof, Linde,
MAN, Mannesmann, Nixdorf, RWE, Schering, Siemens, Thyssen, Veba, Viag, Volkswagen.
Exits
Feldmühle Nobel
Nixdorf Computer AG
Deutsche Babcock
Kaufhof
Continental
Metallgesellschaft
Bayrische Hypotheken- und Wechselbank
Bayrische Vereinsbank
Daimler-Benz
Degussa
Thyssen
Hoechst
Mannesmann
Veba
VIAG
Degussa-Hüls
KarstadtQuelle
Dresdner Bank
Degussa
Epcos
MLP Vz.
Hypo Vereinsbank
Schering
Altana
TUI
Continental
Hypo Real Estate
Infineon
Deutsche Postbank
Hannover Rück
Volkswagen (St)
Salzgitter
MAN
Metro
Entries
03.09.1990
03.09.1990
18.09.1995
22.07.1996
23.09.1996
18.11.1996
22.06.1998
22.06.1998
21.12.1998
22.03.1999
25.03.1999
20.09.1999
14.02.2000
19.06.2000
19.06.2000
18.12.2000
19.03.2001
23.07.2001
23.09.2002
23.12.2002
22.09.2003
19.12.2005
18.09.2006
18.06.2007
22.09.2008
22.12.2008
23.03.2009
21.09.2009
23.12.2009
21.06.2010
24.09.2012
Metallgesellschaft
Preussag
SAP
METRO
Münchner Rück
Deutsche Telekom
adidas
Hypo Vereinsbank
Daimler
Degussa-Hüls
ThyssenKrupp
Fresenius Medical Care
Epcos
E.ON
Infineon
Degussa
Deutsche Post
MLP Vz.
Altana
Deutsche Börse
Continental
Hypo Real Estate
Postbank
Merck
K+S
Beiersdorf
Salzgitter
Fresenius (Vz)
Hannover Rück
Infineon
Volkswagen (Vz)
HeidelbergCement
Lanxess
Continental