TOPIX

The index transitioned from a system where a company's weighting is based on the total number of shares outstanding to a weighting based on the number of shares available for trading (called the free float).

Although the change is a technicality, it had a significant effect on the weighting of many companies in the index, because many companies in Japan hold a significant number of shares of their business partners as a part of intricate business alliances, and such shares are no longer included in calculating the weight of companies in the index.

The TOPIX index is traded as a future on the Osaka Exchange under the ticker symbol JTPX.

[1] The CQG contract specifications for the TOPIX Index are listed below.

TSE currently calculates and distributes TOPIX every second and further plans to launch a new High-Speed Index dissemination service provided at the millisecond level starting from February 28, 2011.