Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, has launched the Dow Jones Islamic Market (DJIM) China Offshore Hong Kong Index.

The DJIM China Offshore Hong Kong Index represents the performance of companies that have been screened for compliance with Islamic principles and whose primary operations are in mainland China but trade on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Stocks included in the index are H-Shares and Red Chips.

The DJIM China Offshore Hong Kong Index is designed to serve as underlying for investment products such as mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other investable products.

“The Dow Jones Islamic Market China Offshore Hong Kong Index is another innovative addition to the highly successful Dow Jones Islamic Market index series following a unique and superior methodology,” said editor and executive director, Dow Jones Indexes, John Prestbo.

“Market participants will find in this index a way to track Shari’ah compliant mainland China stocks that are listed in the easily accessible Hong Kong market rather than in the restricted local Chinese market.”

The DJIM China Offshore Hong Kong Index is weighted by free-float market capitalization and component weights are capped at 10 per cent.

As of April 30, 2008, the index consists of 40 components of which the top five components by free float-adjusted market capitalization are China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom Ltd., CITIC Pacific Ltd., CNOOC Ltd. and PetroChina Co. Ltd.

As of April 30, 2008, the DJIM China Offshore Hong Kong Price Index (US dollar) gained 152.9 per cent from its base date, December 31, 2005 in a backtest.

The DJIM China Offshore Hong Kong Index is calculated in both US dollar and Hong Kong dollar versions. It is reviewed quarterly in March, June, September and December.

Launched in 1999, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes seek to measure the global universe of investable equities that pass screens for Shari’ah compliance. The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes combine Islamic investment principles with Dow Jones Indexes’ objective, transparent and rules-based methodology.

The index family includes more than 70 regional, country and industry indexes derived from the flagship Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index.

In 2006 the index family expanded to include the Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability Index, which combines Islamic investing principles with sustainability criteria, the Dow Jones Citigroup Sukuk Index, the first index to track Islamic bonds and Dow Jones Islamic Market BRIC Equal Weighted Index, which tracks Shari’ah compliant stocks in Brazil, Russia, India and China. Islamic blue-chip indexes for Sri Lanka, Dubai, China/Hong Kong and India were launched last year.

There are currently more than 75 licensees with more than $7 billion in assets benchmarked to the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes. – TradeArabia News Service