NEW YORK, March 12, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today announced the results of the regular quarterly review of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes. As part of this review, the index universe of the Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index will be expanded to include Russia. All changes will be effective after the close of trading on Friday, March 20, 2009.
In the Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index, 134 companies will be exchanged, which keeps the number of components in the index at 2,538.
With 50 additions and 60 deletions, the number of components in the Dow Jones Islamic Market Asia/Pacific Index will decrease to 1,088. In the Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Index, 33 components will be added, while 32 components will be deleted. That brings the number of components in the index to 473. The number of components in the Dow Jones Islamic Market Americas Index will increase to 820, with 40 additions and 34 deletions. In the Dow Jones Islamic Market Middle East & Africa Index, 11 components will be added, while eight components will be deleted. That brings the number of components in the index to 157.
In the Dow Jones Islamic Market BRIC Equal Weighted Index, four components will be added, while one component will be deleted. That brings the number of components in the index to 73.
In the Dow Jones Islamic Market China Offshore Index, 19 components will be added, while one component will be deleted. That brings the number of components to 40. With two additions and 22 deletions, the number of components in the Dow Jones Islamic Market Hong Kong Index will decrease to 80. In the Dow Jones Islamic Market India Index, eight components will be added, while seven components will be deleted. That brings the number of components in the index to 202. The number of components in the Dow Jones Islamic Market Turkey Index will decrease to 32, with two additions and three deletions.
The total free-float market capitalization of the reconstituted Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index increased to US$8.53 trillion from US$8.05 trillion(1).
The total free-float market capitalization of the reconstituted Dow Jones Islamic Market Asia/Pacific Index remained unchanged at US$1.32 trillion, while the total free-float market capitalization of the reconstituted Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Index increased to US$2.34 trillion from US$1.84 trillion. As of March 9, 2009, the total free-float market capitalization of the reconstituted Dow Jones Islamic Market Americas Index decreased to US$4.76 trillion from US$4.79 trillion and the total free-float market capitalization of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Middle East & Africa Index increased to US$102.08 billion from US$96.09 billion.
The total free-float market capitalization of the reconstituted Dow Jones Islamic Market BRIC Index decreased to US$242.83 billion from US$243.57 billion.
The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes were introduced in 1999 as the first indexes intended to measure the global universe of investable equities that pass screens for Shari'ah compliance. With more than 100 indexes, the series is the most comprehensive family of Islamic market measures and includes regional, country, and industry indexes, all of which are subsets of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index.
An independent Shari'ah Supervisory Board counsels Dow Jones Indexes on matters related to the compliance of index-eligible companies. To determine their eligibility for the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes, stocks are screened based on their industry type and their financial ratios. Excluded are 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.
There are currently more than 75 licensees with more than US$7 billion in assets benchmarked to the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes.
More information on the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes is available on www.djindexes.com.
Company additions to and deletions from the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.
Note to editors:
The following indexes are also part of this regular quarterly review:
-- Dow Jones DFM Index -- Dow Jones Islamic Market Industry Indexes -- Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability Index -- Other Dow Jones Islamic Market Country indexes -- Other Dow Jones Islamic Market Regional indexes -- Other Dow Jones Islamic Market Global indexes
The Dow Jones Islamic Market China/Hong Kong Titans 30 Index is reviewed annually in September.
Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100, Dow Jones Islamic Market U.S. Titans 50, Dow Jones Islamic Market Asia/Pacific Titans 25, Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Titans 25 and Dow Jones Islamic Market Malaysia Titans 25 indexes are reviewed annually in June.
The Dow Jones DFM Titans 10 Index is reviewed annually in March.
Journalists may e-mail questions regarding this press release to PR-Indexes@dowjones.com.
Note to Editors:
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, and together with Wilshire Associates, provides the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Index family, which is anchored by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 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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(1) The market capitalization values of all indexes cited in this report are as of March 9, 2009.
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