Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE), Russell Investment Group and Nomura Securities are jointly planning to introduce futures based on the Russell/Nomura Prime Index, a newly developed index co-developed by Russell and Nomura.
The companies plan to list the Russell/Nomura Prime Index futures on the OSE Market, and market them to domestic and overseas institutional investors who invest in Japanese equity markets through passive investment strategies, hedge strategies and other use of derivatives.
“It implies the opening of a new era for Japanese equity derivatives markets that OSE will pursue its cooperation with Russell Investment Group, provider of the Russell series of 21 US indexes, and Nomura Securities Co., Ltd., a representative securities company in Japan,” says Michio Yoneda, President and CEO of OSE. “OSE, as a leading equity derivatives market in Japan, has been providing an efficient and attractive market. Through listing of futures based on the Russell/Nomura Prime Index, we strongly hope to provide a better market with improvement of its convenience to domestic and overseas investors.” Craig Ueland, President and CEO of Russell Investment Group, describes the Russell/Nomura Prime Index as a strong model for passive investment in the Japanese equity market. “We are pleased that by working with OSE, we will be adding derivatives trading capabilities to this index offering,” he says. “This provides investors with a new solution for directional strategies based on a strong underlying Japanese equity index.”
Yasuyuki Kato, Managing Director, the Head of Global Quantitative Research of Nomura Securities Co., Ltd., says “the newly created Russell/Nomura Prime Index will greatly contribute to the asset management business.”