NYSE Liffe, the European derivatives business of NYSE Euronext, has launched a standard cash-settled futures contract based on the CAC 40 Dividend Index.

The move follows the launch of the exchange’s FTSE 100 Dividend Index futures contract in May this year.

The CAC 40 Dividend Index represents the cumulative value of ordinary gross dividends declared by the individual constituents of the CAC 40 Index over a one-year period. The value of the dividend index is expressed in terms of index points.

Anne Gaignard (pictured), head of equity derivatives business development at NYSE Liffe in Paris, says: “In the last few years dividends have come to be seen as an asset class in their own right, and institutional investors have taken a growing interest in them as a result.  This new contract enables investors to take a broad view on the expected dividends of CAC 40 companies and also provides them with the ability to hedge the dividend risk implicit in CAC 40 derivative contracts more precisely.  We are also responding to the huge interest we have seen in our FTSE 100 Dividend Index future, in which almost 750,000 lots have already been traded, and open interest currently stands at over a quarter of a million contracts.”

The contracts will be available through NYSE Liffe’s Liffe Connect Central Order Book market. Market makers will support the pricing of contracts on the order book. Contracts, expiring on the third Friday in December, will be available for trading out to five years. The first contract listed will be for the December 2010 expiry.