Financial Times Stock Exchange International entered the post-euro European benchmark melee on June 14 with the launch of its FTSE EStars index.

Recent months have seen the launches of a plethora of new funds, as well as the announcements of an equally large number of impending launches.

A new index was launched Sept. 8 by Dow Jones Indexes and Zurich-based researcher Sustain-able Asset Management to measure the world's socially responsible companies that offer long-term returns.

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.

Index providers Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Standard & Poor's have gotten together to introduce a new "classification standard" for grouping industries for stock research and for use in stock-index investments.

Dow Jones launched a 50-stock benchmark index of the world's largest multinational companies on June 1. The first of its kind, the Dow Jones Global Titans Index is a response to the growing importance placed by professional investors on giant multinationals.

John C. Bogle, Vanguard Group's founder and senior chairman, may be asked to retire from the giant fund group's board, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Stoxx Ltd. launched two new tickers to cover the Scandinavian and Nordic markets on July 1 in an exclusive pact with Helsinki's stock exchange.

The Dow Jones Stoxx Nordic covers 118 companies in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. All stocks in the broad index are taken directly from those currently in the Dow Jones Stoxx index of 620 companies.