Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, London, New York, Paris, Thursday 5 November 2009 – NYSE Liffe, the Europe-based derivatives business of NYSE Euronext (NYX), is to add to its highly successful Long Gilt Futures contract by launching 2 and 5 Year Gilt futures on 23 November 2009.

NYSE Liffe’s Long Gilt futures contract already trades over 2 million lots each month, on average. The record levels of debt issuance by the UK government, combined with the unprecedented Quantitative Easing programme being carried out by the Bank of England, has led to considerable uncertainty about the nearer-term outlook for UK interest rates, stimulating demand for shorter-dated derivatives instruments to manage risk. 

Paul MacGregor, Director of NYSE Liffe Fixed Income, commented: “Given current economic conditions, we decided to ask a range of customers – including GEMMs (Gilt Edged Market Makers), Sterling Swaps desks, Individual Proprietary traders, Hedge Funds and Asset Managers – whether they wanted shorter-dated Gilt contracts.  We found  near universal demand, because there is a widespread feeling that, as far as future interest rates are concerned, we are entering uncharted waters.”

The new Gilt Futures contracts will be physically deliverable, trading on a 6% coupon and a £100,000 notional value. The delivery baskets will be 1.5 – 3.25 years and 4 – 6 years for the 2 and 5 Year contracts, respectively.

For more information, please contact:

NYSE Liffe
Amsterdam: +31 20 550 4488
Brussels: +32 2 509 1392
Lisbon: +351 217 900 000
London: +44 20 7379 2789
New York: +1 212 656 2411
Paris: +33 1 49 27 11 33

Notes to Editors
NYSE Euronext (NYX) is a leading global operator of financial markets and provider of innovative trading technologies. The company's exchanges in Europe and the United States trade equities, futures, options, fixed-income and exchange-traded products. With more than 8,000 listed issues, NYSE Euronext's equities markets -- the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Euronext, NYSE Amex and NYSE Alternext as well as NYSE Arca – represent nearly 40 percent of the world's equities trading, the most liquidity of any global exchange group. NYSE Euronext also operates NYSE Liffe, the leading European derivatives business and the world's second-largest derivatives business by value of trading. The company offers comprehensive commercial technology, connectivity and market data products and services through NYSE Technologies. NYSE Euronext is in the S&P 500 index, and is the only exchange operator in the S&P 100 index and Fortune 500.
For more information, please visit: http://www.nyx.com