Thomson Reuters is working closely with the Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX) as it launches its next generation of desktop indices for financial market professionals.

"BFX is the kind of innovative market offering that the region needs," said Thomson Reuters global head of Rapidly Developing Economies Basil Moftah.

"At a time when global stock markets are lacklustre, there is a need for new innovation for investors and that is what BFX is offering to the market.

He was speaking as Thomson Reuters launched 500 new indices across the region on its Eikon platform.

The new indices allow clients to monitor market movements more deeply by country or region.

Covering 51 countries and 24 regions, Thomson Reuters indices enable clients to monitor global markets, benchmark specific countries, regions and sectors and develop investment vehicles globally.

Each Thomson Reuters index is created using a proprietary liquidity filter that selects stocks based on price, as opposed to volume.

By only including stocks that investors can access, the indices provide a more accurate depiction of the investing opportunities available, particularly in emerging markets, where many securities are not accessible to all investors.

The indices utilise the proprietary Thomson Reuters Business Classification (TRBC) system which provides globally consistent sector standards.

TRBC is the industry's broadest classification system covering 71,000 public and 230,000 private companies worldwide.

All 9,000 Thomson Reuters indices are accessible from desktops as well as data feeds in products such as Thomson Reuters Eikon, Thomson Reuters 3000 Xtra, Thomson Reuters Datastream, StarMine and Thomson Reuters Portfolio Analytics.

"The addition of 500 Middle East indices will give investment managers, quantitative analysts and other financial professionals access to these important emerging markets and an opportunity to analyse market movements at a deeper level," said Moftah.

"We are looking at country sectors, Islamic indices and commodities to allow investors to track and follow opportunities and get a broader view of emerging markets in everything from energy, renewable energy, Islamic banking and media companies," he added. -TradeArabia News Service