The International Securities Exchange has announced that it is launching the ISE-B&S Water Index, a new sector index option and benchmark for this emerging industry.

The International Securities Exchange has announced that it is launching the ISE-B&S Water Index (Ticker: HHO), a new sector index option and benchmark for this emerging industry which was developed with Boenning & Scattergood (B&S), one of the oldest, independently operated securities firms headquartered in the Mid-Atlantic region.

The ISE-B&S Water Index was developed in response to growing interest in water as a scarce resource and comprises companies in the water infrastructure, filtration, distribution, purification and treatment industries. The index currently contains 20 stocks that trade in the U.S. market, including such notable domestic industry participants as Aqua America Inc. (NYSE: WTR), Watts Water Technologies Inc. (NYSE: WTS), as well as international companies that trade as Depositary Receipts, such as Companhia de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paulo (NYSE: SBS). The index is the basis for cash-settled index options, which will list and begin trading today on ISE under the symbol HHO.

“ISE is pleased to announce the new ISE-B&S Water Index which capitalizes on the growing interest in water as a precious commodity. We have been at the forefront of developing and launching innovative indices to anticipate market demand. This continues our record of innovation in the options market and adds to ISE's portfolio of unique and proprietary sector index options, which offer investors sophisticated trading strategies to manage their equity portfolios,” says Bruce Goldberg, ISE's chief marketing officer.

Harold Scattergood, chairman of Boenning & Scattergood, says, “We are very pleased to join with the International Securities Exchange in the launch of this exciting new product. Boenning & Scattergood has a focused research effort and professional staff dedicated to identifying promising investment opportunities in the Water industry and businesses that are improving the supply and quality of water. This new product is certain to provide investors with the ability to participate in this exciting new industry, as well as serve as an excellent tool to control risk.”

ISE's index methodologies for the sector indexes are rules-based, making the rules for calculating and maintaining the indexes freely available to everyone, and thus easily used to test the historic performance of the indexes.

Additional information about these indexes, including methodology guides, component lists and weightings, performance metrics and historical data is made available on ISE's Web site, www.iseoptions.com, on the “Products Traded/Index Options” page.