MERVAL: the Merval index measures in ARS the value of a theoretical basket of

selected stocks on the basis of criteria concerning their liquidity.

The index is composed of a fixed nominal number of stocks of various listed companies
(commonly known as blue chips). The fixed number of stocks each company shares in the
index is known as theoretical quantity.

The creation of this index presupposes an initial investment of ARS 100, which was to be
distributed among the listed companies according to their share of participation in:
a) The total traded value over the last semester and,
b) The total number of trades over the last semester.
The index base is ARS 0.01 dated June 30, 1986

The shares comprising the Merval index change on a quarterly basis, the time when this
theoretical portfolio is recalculated on the basis of the criteria a) and b) previously mentioned.

The percentage participation that each share has in the index is calculated as follows:

1. Participation coefficients are calculated on the basis of the weighting of each stock
in the total traded value and the total number of trades over the last semester:
where:
Parti is the participation of the i-th stock in the total
number of trades and traded value

n i
is the total number of trades for the i-th stock over the

Part i = n *v
i i previous six months.

N V N is the total number of trades in stocks over the previous six

months

v i is the total traded value of the i-th stock over the previous
six months

V is the total traded value in stocks over the previous six

months

2. All listed stocks are sequenced in a decreasing order based on their participation
coefficient. The ones selected are those comprised in the accumulated 80%
participation. In addition, the selected companies can only qualify if they can prove
that they have traded in at least 80% of the trading sessions over the period under
consideration (the previous semester).

3. Each stock participation is adjusted as per the total value comprising the Merval index
in order to obtain the adjusted participation in accordance with the following
formula:

where:
Parti
PartAj i = PartAji is the adjusted participation of the i-th stock
nN * vV
n
i i
n is the number of selected companies to be comprised in the
i =1
index
 4. The number of stocks each company will have in the index (theoretical quantity) is
calculated on the basis of the adjusted participation of each stock. In principle, this
number is fixed over the quarter during which the portfolio is effective and will depend
on the participation and price of each stock upon revision of the index:

where:

I T 1 is the value of the Merval index upon

Q * P i ,T 1= PartAji* I T 1 closing of the previous quarter.
i ,T
Pi,T 1is the price of the i-th stock upon
closing of the previous quarter.

Qi,T is the quantity of the i-th stock upon

beginning of quarter

The theoretical quantity of each stock upon the beginning of the quarter (T moment) will be
determined on the basis of the following formula:

n *v
i i
I N I V
Q = PartAj * i
T 1
= * T 1
i ,T
P P
nN * vV
n
i i i ,T 1
i, T 1

i =1

This theoretical quantity will remain fixed over the quarter insofar as there are no corporate
actions. There are four situations which may alter the companies theoretical quantity over the
index portfolio effective quarter:

9 payment of cash dividends

9 payment of stock dividends
9 stock revaluations
9 stock subscriptions

These situations imply a technical fall of the stock price at the opening of the trading session
72 working hours prior to the occurrence of the corporate action. Therefore, it becomes
necessary to adjust the value of the index to make it comparable with its value upon the
previous closing. The companys percentage participation in the index must be kept the same,
i.e., upon the price fall, the theoretical quantity must necessarily increase so that the share
participation in the index is kept unchanged.

5. Upon disclosure of stock theoretical quantities (weighting) and prices comprised in the
index, the value is calculated as follows:

n
I = Qi * PRi
i =1
where:
r is the number of stocks comprising the index
Qi is the theoretical quantity of the i-th stock
PRi is the price of the i-th stock upon calculation