20 years of ATX

Date: 01.01.2011

The ATX is celebrating its 20 year anniversary!
Since January 2, 1991 the Vienna Stock Exchange has been calculating the Austrian Traded Index (ATX). The ATX contains of the 20 most liquid and highest capitalised stocks, so called blue-chips, that are listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. The index composition is revised twice a year by independent members of the index committee meeting. Main criteria for inclusion or exclusion are free-float capitalization and turnover. The current composition of ATX.

During the last years, the ATX underwent a couple of ups and downs of the market: after the Russia crisis in the second half of the nineties and the dotcom bubble at the beginning of the new millennium, the ATX succeded in establishing a continous positiv development until the all-time high of 5,000 points on July 9, 2007. After the sub-prime and financial crisis in the years 2008 and 2009, the ATX decreased below 2,000 points.

For all that: since the launch on January 2, 1991 the average annual performance of the ATX reaches 9.7%. This shows clearly that - in a long term investor's view - shares can be considered as a a very attractive investment. Unfortunately only few investors in Austria take advantage of investments in shares for their financial precautions. The investment position "shares and certificates" of private households in Austria is compared to other European countries at only 17%, whereas the EU average comes at 32%.

At the year-end 2010 the ATX stood at 2,904 points, thus shows an overall performance of 190% since the launch 20 years ago. The members of the board, Dr. Michael Buhl and Dr. Heinrich Schaller, are convinced of a continuing positive trend on the Vienna Stock Exchange in the future: Austrian companies, of which many are global market leader in some special areas, will continue their engagement in Central- and Eastern Europe and will therefore remain in the investors' focus.