S&P 500 and DJIA indices are two of the world’s most followed indices and are considered as the barometers of U.S. market. These indices have displayed historic resilience in holistically capturing the movements of the U.S. market. NSE which has been a pioneer in the introduction of innovative and investor friendly products is introducing rupee denominated future contracts on S&P 500 and DJIA indices. This is the first time in the world that futures contracts on S&P 500 index are being introduced and listed on an exchange outside of their home country, USA.

S&P 500 is a free-float capitalization-weighted index of 500 leading companies of the U.S. economy and is widely regarded as the best single gauge of the U.S. equities market. Although the S&P 500 focuses on the large cap segment of the market, with approximately 75% coverage of U.S. equities, it is still widely considered as an ideal proxy for the total market. S&P 500 is maintained by Standard & Poor’s and was introduced in 1957.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is a price weighted index first published in the 1896. DJIA Index includes 30 large and liquid blue chips stocks traded on U.S. exchanges. The Dow® represents roughly 28% of the float-adjusted market capitalization of the U.S. stock market. Being composed mainly of blue-chip stocks having a leadership position in the U.S. market the Dow® doesn’t literally “represents” the entire U.S. market rather, it is a blue-chip index representing the leading companies in the industries driving the U.S. stock market. As a result, its performance is highly correlated with broad-based U.S. indices like S&P 500.