In mid-July Fidelity Investments' Magellan Fund sailed serenely past the $100 billion mark in assets.

As the largest existing mutual fund, Magellan is bigger than all stock mutual funds combined were in 1984 and bigger than the entire fund industry in 1979. Its assets are larger than the gross domestic product of Ireland and every state budget in the U.S.

The London International Financial Futures & Options Exchange has recently launched a bevy of options and futures contracts on European indexes from both FTSE International and Morgan Stanley Capital International.

Wilshire Associates Inc., provider of the Wilshire 5000 index, has renamed some of its index series. The changes do not affect the construction or methodology of the indexes themselves.

The FTSE International indexes have gone through some dramatic changes recently with the introduction of a new global classification system, and it looks like more index alterations are lurking around the corner.

As of July 1, 1999, FTSE reclassified the FT/S&P-Actuaries World Indices according to its new global industry classification system. The system was introduced in stages to the FTSE European and UK index series earlier this year.

The Nasdaq-Amex Market Group began trading options on The CSFB Technology Index (Amex: CTN) on June 23.

Listed on the American Stock Exchange, this new equity index consists of 75 actively traded companies including 50 of the largest U.S.-listed technology stocks plus 25 technology stocks selected by the Credit Suisse Technology Group to add diversification by sector.

Socially responsible investing and indexed investing are two trends that have developed fairly wide followings in recent years. It's not surprising then that some fund management companies have combined the two methods. What may be a tad surprising though, is the fact that these hybrid funds have performed so well.

Domini

Standard & Poor's and the Toronto Stock Exchange began distributing their latest Canadian indexes in real-time on May 14. The S&P/TSE Canadian MidCap Index and the S&P/TSE Canadian SmallCap Index have 60 and 180 component stocks, respectively.

With so many new stock indexes making their debuts, bond indexes might seem lost in the shuffle. But the field has not been neglected. Europe is taking the lead in offering new debt-related securities indexes in the wake of the Euro; new bond indexes covering Australia and the U.S real estate market have also been introduced.

Deutsche Borse

Deutsche Borse has announced a new series of pan-European and euro-zone bond indexes for both institutional and individual investors.