NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today announced the launch of the Dow Jones U.K. Smaller Companies Index, which provides market participants with a comprehensive measure of the United Kingdom's small and micro cap segments.
The index currently includes 188 stocks from the London Stock Exchange, including those traded on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The Dow Jones U.K. Smaller Companies Index is designed to provide a complete view of the U.K. small and micro cap segment and will serve Dow Jones Newswires as a benchmark for its extended U.K. small cap coverage.
"The Dow Jones U.K. Smaller Companies Index was created as a result of the demand for a single go-to instrument to measure the performance of the broad U.K. small and micro cap market," said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. "The inclusion of stocks traded on the AIM makes this index a unique benchmark and will provide Dow Jones Newswires and market participants with a more accurate tool to analyze and evaluate the U.K. small and micro cap segment."
Dow Jones Newswires has been expanding its coverage of smaller U.K. companies and plans to use the new index as a reference.
The index universe for the Dow Jones U.K. Smaller Companies Index consists of all equity issue stocks, REITs or similar securities with readily available prices that trade in the U.K., including those listed on the AIM. To be included in the Dow Jones U.K. Smaller Companies Index, stocks must fall between the 97% and 99% of cumulated free-float market capitalization of the index universe. A buffer rule avoids major turnover in the index, excluding only components which fall either below the 96% quantile or above the 99.25% quantile during the regular review.
The Dow Jones U.K. Smaller Companies Index is available in price and total return versions, and is reviewed quarterly in March, June, September and December. The index is also examined on an ongoing basis to account for corporate actions such as mergers, de-listings or bankruptcies.
The Dow Jones U.K. Smaller Companies Index is calculated in pounds sterling and U.S. dollars, and is weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization. Daily historical index values are available back to June 30, 2006, with the base value of the index being set at 1000.
Please visit www.djindexes.com for more information on the Dow Jones U.K. Smaller Companies Index.
The Dow Jones U.K. Smaller Companies Index was first published on September 8, 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). Backtested performance information is purely hypothetical and is solely for informational purposes. Backtested 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.
About Dow Jones Indexes
A full-service index provider, Dow Jones Indexes 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 also is co-owner of the Dow Jones STOXX indexes, the world's leading pan-European indexes that are an integrated segment of the Dow Jones Global Index series. Additionally, Dow Jones Indexes maintains its benchmark index series, the Dow Jones Total Stock Market Indexes, which is anchored by the Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index and covers more than 12,000 securities in 65 markets. Beyond equity indexes, Dow Jones Indexes maintains a number of alternative indexes, including measures of the hedge fund and commodity markets. Dow Jones indexes are maintained according to clear, unbiased and systematic methodologies that are fully integrated within index families. www.djindexes.com
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