Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, has launched an additional set of conventional and Shari’ah compliant indexes measuring the performance of stocks listed in the GCC and Mena.

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 were launched include companies from all six member states of the GCC. 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 authorised 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 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, defence/weapons and entertainment.

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

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 $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 per cent of stocks by free-float market capitalisation are selected to the index.

The four new indexes are weighted by float-adjusted market capitalisation. 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.

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 US dollar.-TradeArabia News Service