"FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Germany's stock exchange operator said Thursday it plans to close its Neuer Markt after the German equivalent of the Nasdaq lost almost all of its value in a two-and-a-half year slide. The exchange also plans tougher reporting standards for listed companies on its main market.

The Neuer Markt as well as the small-cap SMAX segment will be shut by early 2003, with companies listed there transferred to two new groupings with different reporting rules, Deutsche Boerse said in a statement.