Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) will introduce China Merchants Bank Co Ltd (CMB, Stock Code: 3968) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC, Stock Code: 1398) futures and options on Friday, 27 October 2006.

Contract months of the CMB and ICBC futures and options available for trading on 27 October will be November, December, March 2007 and June 2007.

The contract multiplier for CMB Futures will be 500, while the size of the corresponding options contracts will be one board lot of the underlying shares, or 500 shares.  ICBC Futures will have a contract multiplier of 1,000 and the size of the corresponding options contracts will be 1,000 shares (one board lot of the underlying shares).

CMB and ICBC futures will be exempt from the Commission Levy of $0.20 per contract per side for the first six months (from 27 October 2006 to 26 April 2007 inclusive).

The strike price intervals for CMB and ICBC options will be set according to the following table:

HKEx will set the strike prices for CMB Options with reference to the closing price of the underlying stock on 26 October 2006 and the strike prices for ICBC Options will be set with reference to the offer price of the underlying stock.

The latest information on the futures and options contracts traded on HKEx’s derivatives market, including contract specifications, is available on the HKEx website.  Please see: http://www.hkex.com.hk/eng/prod/secprod/Pages/CMProducts.htm

Admission of CMB and ICBC to the List of Designated Securities for Short Selling

CMB and ICBC will be admitted to the list of designated securities eligible for short selling on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of HKEx, with effect from Monday, 23 October 2006 and Friday, 27 October 2006 respectively.

Under the rules of HKEx’s exchanges, the list of designated securities eligible for short selling includes the underlying stocks of stock options and stock futures, and the underlying stocks of structured products which are based on one single class of shares traded on the Stock Exchange.

The latest list of all designated securities for short selling is available on the HKEx website.  Please see: http://www.hkex.com.hk/eng/market/sec_tradinfo/CMTradInfo.htm