Standard & Poor's to slash 30 companies from S&P/TSX composite

Standard & Poor’s to slash 30 companies from S&P/TSX composite

Three firms added to benchmark

By: IE Staff
September 18, 2002 September 18, 2002
13:50

As part of its quarterly review process, Standard & Poor’s will drop 30 companies from the S&P/TSX composite index after the close of trading on Friday, September 20.

The companies to be dropped are:

Cable Satisfaction International Inc.
Persona Inc.
Concert Industries Ltd.
Elk Point Resources Inc.
Guardian Capital Group Limited
Sceptre Investment Counsel Ltd.
AnorMED Inc.
Dimethaid Research Inc.
Hemosol Inc.
Labopharm Inc.
Lorus Therapeutics Inc.
TLC Vision Corporation
Global Thermoelectric Inc.
Heroux-Devtek Inc.
Hydrogenics Corporation
MDC Corporation Inc.
BakBone Software Inc.
Burntsand Inc.
COM DEV International Ltd.
CryptoLogic Inc.
EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc.
Kasten Chase Applied Research Ltd.
Mosaid Technologies Inc.
Pivotal Corporation
Rand A Technology Corporation
Sierra Wireless Inc.
Tundra Semiconductor Corp.
Wi-LAN Inc.
Acetex Corporation; and
Canam Manac Group Inc.

Aeterna Laboratories Inc. was originally included in the list to be deleted. It does not appear pending verification of data.

Three companies will be added to the index: CoolBrands International Inc.; Peyto Exploration & Development Corp.; and
Southernera Resources Ltd.

The changes to the S&P/TSX Composite Index will also affect the S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index, S&P/TSX Canadian SmallCap index, and TSX 200 Index. Stocks added or removed from the S&P/TSX Composite Index will also be added to or removed from the appropriate Global Industry Classification Standard (GICs) indices.

In January, 2002 Standard & Poor’s announced a significant revision to the Canadian suite of indices. Key among the changes is a set of new criteria for inclusion and maintenance of public companies in the index.

There will no longer be a requirement for the index to have exactly 300 constituents. Company size and liquidity will be the chief attributes determining index membership.

The current revision represents the second transition phase of the new Maintenance Policies. After the final transition review in December of 2002, regular quarterly reviews following the full set of guidelines as set out in the Maintenance Policies and Criteria for Inclusion will be in effect starting in 2003.