Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) has developed two marketing initiatives for its H-shares Index Futures contract that will be introduced for trading on Monday, 8 December 2003.

Incentive Programme - To encourage early individual investor participation in the market, a $50 supermarket gift coupon will be awarded to the buyers and/or sellers of each of the first 800 H-shares Index Futures contracts traded through Futures Exchange Participants!| client accounts, excluding Block Trades and Average Price Trades.  

Reward Programme - To encourage Futures Exchange Participants to promote the new product, Participants will receive $2.5 for each H-shares Index Futures contract traded via their client accounts between 8 December 2003 and 7 March 2004. 

In addition to the marketing initiatives, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will waive the SFC Levy from 8 December 2003 to 7 June 2004 to support the development of the H-shares Index Futures market.  The SFC Levy per H-shares Index Futures contract per side is $1.

For more information on H-shares Index Futures, please see the 22 October 2003 news release, HKEx to Introduce H-shares Index Futures on 8 December 2003, posted on the HKEx website.