The Osaka Securities Exchange Co. (8697.OK) said Tuesday that it will begin listing futures contracts based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average by early 2012 as part of its broader partnership with CME Group Inc. (CME).

Separately CME will offer micro-sized futures contracts based on the Nikkei 225 Average, aimed at retail-level and professional investors, according to a joint announcement from the exchange companies. Both sets of derivatives products will be denominated in the Japanese currency.

The partnering on contract development and marketing broadens a relationship between CME and Osaka that goes back more than 10 years. It also marks one of the highest-profile index agreements yet struck by CME since it took ownership of the Dow Jones & Co. group of stock-market benchmarks in February 2010 in a $608 million deal.

"In addition to Dow Jones Industrial Average as a first step, OSE will continue to explore developing attractive futures products based on a variety of asset classes with CME Group," said OSE President Michio Yoneda in the statement Tuesday.

Dow futures were previously listed on the OSE, Japan's largest derivatives bourse, from 2002 to 2005, but were dropped due to lackluster demand that was largely attributed to the limited trading hours.

When Dow futures were listed on the OSE in the past, the derivatives could only be traded during Japanese day-time hours. OSE has since introduced night-time trading from 4:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., with hours extended even longer last week to 3:00 a.m.

According to Yoneda, 30% of last week's daily trading volume was generated by the night session, versus 20% before the night-time hour extension.

CME has listed Nikkei 225 futures since 1990. Trading in yen-denominated versions of the contracts so far in 2011 has risen 27% over year-ago levels to an average 25,600 per day, outpacing the 5% growth in dollar-denominated Nikkei futures to a daily average of 12,300.

The OSE in 2000 adopted CME's method for calculating collateral requirements, and the two exchanges formalized their cooperation in 2008 with a joint agreement to develop new contracts and market services.

-By Judy Lam and Kana Inagaki, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-6269-2795; judy.lam@dowjones.com, kana.inagaki@dowjones.com