The SMI Celebrates 30th Anniversary with Exhibition

One of the predecessor organizations of SIX launched the SMI 30 years ago. On 1 July 1988, the then Association of Swiss Securities Exchanges published the Swiss Market Index® (SMI) for the first time. To mark this anniversary, the Swiss Finance Museum in Zurich-West is holding a year-long special exhibition from 1 June 2018 onward: "30 years SMI: stock market indices explained".

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A great deal has happened since the SMI was launched. Over the course of its eventful history, the index has risen almost sixfold. The benchmark now covers around 80% of the Swiss equity market's entire capitalization. As the Swiss stock market's best-known reference index, it is still used by providers of financial products from across the world. The SMI is also used as a reference value and underlying for index-based investments such as ETFs. The SMI is as important as ever: the SMI stocks of Nestlé and Novartis have the two highest market capitalizations in Europe and along with Roche are among Europe's top five.

As you would expect, events over the past 30 years have left their mark on the SMI's performance over time, which provides a portrayal of defining events and illustrates the context in which corporate mergers, changes to the index rules and product launches took place. You can find a concise selection of historical highlights here: www.six-group.com/smi-30years

The Swiss Finance Museum is marking the anniversary by re-telling the history of the SMI while explaining the origin and significance of stock market indices in general. For example, a share certificate of General Electric Company takes us back to the era in which the Dow Jones indices and the Wall Street Journal were founded. The new special exhibition also uses touchscreen installations, 3D elements and an extended free smartphone audio guide to outline the trend in the Swiss economy over the last 30 years. In addition, historical securities from eight selected Swiss companies that have played a key role in the country's commercial life give visitors an insight into the recent past of the Swiss economy. The exhibits are part of the world's largest and most important collection of historical securities.

Pictures of the exhibition can be found here: www.finanzmuseum.ch/medien

Any questions?

Please do not hesitate to contact Julian Chan.

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SIX
SIX operates and develops infrastructure services in the areas of securities, payment transactions and financial information with the aim of raising efficiency, quality and innovative capacity across the entire value chain of the Swiss financial center. The company is owned by its users (127 banks). With a workforce of some 4,000 employees and a presence in 23 countries, it generated operating income in excess of CHF 1.9 billion and group net profit of CHF 207.2 million in 2017.
www.six-group.com
 
Swiss Finance Museum
The Swiss Finance Museum is the first of its kind in the banking nation of Switzerland. It houses a multimedia exhibition on the fundamental significance of the financial market and its infrastructure for our everyday life, and illustrates the origins of our economic system. It focuses on stock exchange trading, the capital market, financial instruments and payment transactions. The museum is run by the foundation Collection of Historical Securities, a charitable foundation established by SIX in 2001. The foundation owns one of the most significant collections of historical securities worldwide with some 10,000 securities from more than 150 countries. The highlights of this collection are exhibited in the museum.
www.finanzmuseum.ch