ATX Index (Vienna)

The Austrian Traded Index (ATX) is the most important market index of Austria's Wiener Börse, also known as the Vienna Stock Exchange, itself one of the most important exchanges in eastern Europe. Almost half of the stock trades in Austria are over-the-counter trades, with the remainder handled on the Wiener Börse. Trades on the Wiener Börse are conducted through the Electronic Quote and Order-driven System (EQOS), and the exchange manages the stock exchange of Budapest (sharing structure, information, and stocks). A similar relationship is being arranged with the exchanges of Bucharest (Romania) and Zagreb (Croatia).

The ATX is one of two indices tracking the Wiener Börse; the other is the Wiener Börse Index (WBI), which tracks all domestic shares traded on the exchange. The ATX tracks a mere 20 stocks:

• Andritz AG, a plant engineering group with 120 subsidiaries.
• bwin, an online gaming company formerly known as http://betandwin.com. Most of bwin's revenue comes from sports betting and online poker; it operates internationally with a variety of licenses from locations as diverse as Gibraltar and the First Nations reservation of Kahnawake in Canada. Like most online gambling services, it has met and largely adapted to a variety of legal challenges.
• Erste Bank, a bank operating throughout central Europe, offering investment and commercial banking services in addition to private lending.
• EVN AG, a holding company for energy and waste management firms.
• Flughafen Wien, the company that developed and operates the Vienna Airport; half of Flughafen's stock is publicly traded.
• Intercell, a biotech company that focuses on the production of vaccines.
• Mayr-Melnhof Karton, a paper and packaging manufacturer with 40 percent of its stock publicly traded.
• Österreichische Post, a postal savings bank owned by the Austrian Mail. A 1996 act of Parliament turned it into a joint-stock company.
• OMV, Austria's largest oil and gas company.
• Palfinger, a manufacturer of cranes and other heavy machinery.
• Raiffeisen International, a cooperative bank with almost 3,000 branches.
• RHI, a large diversified construction company.
• Schoeller-Bleckmann, a supplier of nonmagnetic components for the oilfield industry.
• Strabag, the fifth-largest construction company in Europe.
• Telekom Austria, a telecommunications giant.
• Verbund, Austria's largest power company, dealing mostly in hydropower.
• voestalpine, an international steel company.
• Wiener Städtische, an insurance company operating throughout central Europe.
• Wienerberger, the world's largest brick producer.
• Zumtobel, a lighting company.