Index set up to meet investors desire to tap into resurgent resource
    sectorTORONTO, June 1 /CNW/ - CIBC (CM: TSX; NYSE) - CIBC's wholesale banking
business today launched a Canadian tradable commodities index that offers
investors the ability to invest in a range of futures contracts in the
resurgent commodities sector.
    "With strong signals that the economies in East Asia are starting to
emerge from the global economic recession, investors are paying close
attention to commodities once again," says Rob Forgrave, head of commodities
trading for CIBC World Markets Inc. "Our index allows Canadian investors the
ability to customize their exposures across 16 different commodities."
    CIBC's proprietary Composite Commodities Index (CIBC CCI) tracks the
price of futures contracts in four commodity subsectors: Agriculture, Energy,
Base Metals and Precious Metals. The CIBC CCI allows investors to customize
their exposure to specific commodities or subsectors of the index based on
their investment strategies. The index also provides greater flexibility to
roll futures positions compared to other similar indices.
    "The commodity sector, from oil to copper to wheat, is vital to the
Canadian economy and more investors want the ability to leverage off this
growth," adds Mr. Forgrave. "We built this index to give our investors greater
access to the commodity markets based on their own investment interests and
exposure limits."
    The tradable, highly liquid nature of the CIBC CCI makes it unique among
Canadian commodities indices which typically are used for economic
benchmarking and tend not to contain tradable products.
    All commodity futures contracts in the CIBC CCI are listed and traded on
the CME, LME and ICE. Levels are posted on Bloomberg (< CIBZ >) and Reuters.
    The CIBC CCI is the first in a series of proprietary indices that CIBC is
planning to launch as it broadens product offerings in areas where it is a
leader. The other indices will cover interest rates, currencies and equities.

    CIBC is a leading Canadian full service commodity dealer with commodities
professionals based in New York, London, Hong Kong, Toronto, Montreal and
Calgary.
    CIBC's wholesale banking business provides a wide range of credit,
capital markets, investment banking, merchant banking and research products
and services to government, institutional, corporate and retail clients in
Canada and in key markets around the world. All of these activities support
our objective of being the premier client-focused wholesale bank based in
Canada.