The EURO STOXX 50 is a stock index of Eurozone stocks designed by STOXX, an index provider owned by Deutsche Börse Group. According to STOXX, its goal is "to provide a blue-chip representation of Supersector leaders in the Eurozone". 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 such products in Europe and the world.
The EURO STOXX 50 was introduced on 26 February 1998. Its composition is reviewed annually in September. The index is available in several currency (EUR, USD, CAD, GBP, JPY) and return (Price, Net Return, Gross Return) variant combinations. Calculation takes place every 15 seconds between 09:00 CET and 18:00 CET for the EUR and USD variants of any return type, while the CAD, GBP and JPY variants are available as end-of-day calculation only (18:00 CET).
The EURO STOXX 50 Index is derived from the 19 EURO STOXX regional Supersector indices and represents the largest super-sector leaders 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 serves as the basis for single sub-indices such as the EURO STOXX 50 ex Financials, which excludes all companies assigned to the ICB code 8000.
It is one of the most liquid indices for the Eurozone: an ideal underlying for financial products or for benchmarking purposes. Additionally, the index serves as an underlying for many strategy indices, such as the EURO STOXX 50 Risk Control Indices. Buffers are used to achieve the fixed number of components and to maintain stability of the indices by reducing index composition changes. Selection methodology ensures a stable and up-to-date index composition. Fast-entry and fast-exit rules ensure the index accurately represents the performance of only the biggest and most liquid stocks.