• Home
• Financial Services
• News Article

Dow Jones Indexes expands index series for GCC and MENA regions

First international index provider with indexes including real-time Tadawul data
New York: Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today launched an additional set of conventional and Shari'ah compliant indexes measuring the performance of stocks listed in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Middle East and North Africa. The four indexes are the Dow Jones GCC Index, Dow Jones GCC Islamic Market Index, Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 with Saudi and Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA indexes.

The Dow Jones GCC indexes that are launched today include companies from all six member states of the GCC, which are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA Index includes all GCC countries plus Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

"Dow Jones Indexes is the first and currently only international index provider authorized by Tadawul to use real-time data of the Saudi stock market. Offering these indexes is an important milestone for us and shows yet again Dow Jones Indexes' leading position in the Middle East," said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. "The new indexes launched today, give market participants for the first time access to authorized regional conventional and Shari'ah compliant indexes that include the widely sought after Saudi Arabian stock market."

The Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC and the Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA indexes are part of the Dow Jones Islamic Market index series and measure the stock performance of companies that have passed rules-based screens for Shari'ah compliance and exclude companies engaged in the following lines of business: alcohol, tobacco, pork-related products, financial services, defense/weapons and entertainment.

Also excluded are companies for which the following financial ratios are 33% or more: debt divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization; cash plus interest-bearing securities divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization; and accounts receivables divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization.

To be eligible for the Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 with Saudi Index a stock must have an average daily trading volume of at least US$ 500,000. The three largest companies of each of the six GCC member states are included in the index. The remaining 32 components are selected top-down from the index universe.

The index universe of the Dow Jones GCC Index consists of all stocks traded in the six countries in the GCC region. The top 95% of stocks by free-float market capitalization are selected to the index.

The four new indexes are weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization. Back-tested estimated daily index history is available for the Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 with Saudi, Dow Jones GCC, Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC indexes back to December 31, 2003 and for the Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA Index back to December 31, 2008.[i]

The Dow Jones GCC, Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC and the Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA indexes are reviewed quarterly in March, June, September and December. The Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 with Saudi Index is reviewed annually in June. All four new indexes are calculated in U.S. dollar.

As of August 17, 2009, the top five components of the Dow Jones GCC Index by float-adjusted market capitalization are Saudi Basic Industries Corp., Al Rajhi Bank , Mobile Telecommunications Co. , National Bank of Kuwait and Kuwait Finance House.

The top five components of the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC Index by float-adjusted market capitalization are Saudi Basic Industries Corp., Al Rajhi Bank , Saudi Telecom Co. , Alinma Bank and Saudi Arabian Fertilizers Co.

The top five components of the Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 with Saudi Index are Saudi Basic Industries Corp., Mobile Telecommunications Co. , Al Rajhi Bank , Emirates Telecommunications Corp. and National Bank of Kuwait .

The top five components of the Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA Index are Mobile Telecommunications Co. , Saudi Basic Industries Corp., Al Rajhi Bank , Industries of Qatar Co. and Maroc Telecom .

The indexes further complement the existing range of Dow Jones and Dow Jones Islamic Market indexes for the GCC and MENA regions which are the Dow Jones GCC ex-Saudi Index, the Dow Jones GCC Titans 40 Index, the Dow Jones Arabia Titans 50 Index, the Dow Jones UAE Select Index, the Dow Jones Bahrain Index, the Dow Jones Kuwait Composite, the Dow Jones Kuwait Titans 30 Index, the Dow Jones MSM Index, the Dow Jones ASE 100 Index, the Dow Jones EGX Egypt Titans 20 Index, the Dow Jones Total Stock Market Indexes for Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and UAE, the Dow Jones FEAS Composite Index, the Dow Jones SAFE 100 Index; the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC ex-Saudi Index, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Kuwait, the Dow Jones DFM Index and the Dow Jones DFM Titans 10 Index.

For more information on the Dow Jones GCC, Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC and Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA indexes, please visit www.djindexes.com.

-Ends-

About Dow Jones Indexes
Dow Jones Indexes is a leading full-service index provider that develops, maintains and licenses indexes for use as benchmarks and as the basis of investment products. Best-known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes offers more than 130,000 equity indexes as well as fixed-income, total-portfolio and alternative indexes, including measures of the hedge fund, real estate and commodity markets. Dow Jones indexes are maintained according to clear, unbiased and systematic methodologies that are fully integrated within index families.

Dow Jones & Company is a News Corporation company (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Dow Jones is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Dow Jones Client Solutions, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Its Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones owns 50% of SmartMoney and 33% of STOXX Ltd. and provides news content to radio stations in the U.S.

[i] The Dow Jones GCC and the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC indexes are first published on August 18, 2009. The Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 with Saudi Index was first published on July 1, 2009 and the Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA Index was first published on May 27, 2009. All estimated daily historical closing prices prior to that date are based on back-testing (i.e., calculations of how the index might have performed in the past if it had existed). Back-tested performance information is purely hypothetical and is solely for informational purposes. Back-tested performance does not represent actual performance, and past performance is not indicative of future results.

Journalists may e-mail questions regarding this press release to PR-Indexes@dowjones.com or contact Dow Jones Indexes/STOXX press office:
Hong Kong: +852-800-969-336
Singapore: + 65-6-41-54-299
Frankfurt: +49-69-29-725-290
New York: +1-212-597-5720

In Dubai please contact Farah Ibrahim
TRACCS, Dubai (UAE)
Media Relations Manager
Tel: +9714 - 3672530
24/7 Media Hotline: +97150 9448389
Email: farah.ibrahim@traccs.net

© Press Release 2009