NEW YORK, Jan. 25, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today launched the Dow Jones North America Select Junior Gold and the Dow Jones Canada Select Equal Weight Utilities Indexes. The Dow Jones North America Select Junior Gold Index measures the performance of gold mining companies in Canada and the U.S.; whereas the Dow Jones Canada Select Equal Weight Utilities Index comprises larger Canadian utilities companies.
Both indexes have been licensed to BMO Financial Group in connection with two new BMO exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are available today on the Toronto Stock Exchange and will be managed and administered by Jones Heward Investment Counsel Inc., a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Bank of Montreal.
"The Dow Jones North America Select Junior Gold Index and the Dow Jones Canada Select Equal Weight Utilities Index are both unique index concepts that represent Dow Jones Indexes' flexible and reliable approach to indexing," said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. "Via the two new BMO ETFs launched by BMO Financial Group, Canadian investors now have further innovative options to diversify their portfolios on a sector and regional level."
The Dow Jones North America Select Junior Gold Index is calculated in Canadian and U.S. dollar and reviewed annually in December. Float factors, shares outstanding and the index weighting scheme are rebalanced quarterly. The index is weighted based on float-adjusted market capitalization with a 15% cap on individual components applied quarterly. The Dow Jones North America Select Junior Gold Index has a minimum component count of seven companies.
The Dow Jones Canada Select Equal Weight Utilities Index is calculated in Canadian and U.S. dollar and reviewed in June and December. The index is equal weighted and has a minimum component count of five companies.
As of January 22, 2010, the Dow Jones North America Select Junior Gold Index and the Dow Jones Canada Select Equal Weight Utilities Index show an annualized performance since inception of 15.67% and 12.91% respectively.(1)
For more information on the Dow Jones Indexes, please visit www.djindexes.com.
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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 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. http://www.djindexes.com/">www.djindexes.com
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(1) The Dow Jones North America Select Junior Gold Index and the Dow Jones Canada Select Equal Weighted Index were first published on January 8, 2010. 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). Back-tested performance information is purely hypothetical and is solely for informational purposes. Back-tested performance does not represent actual performance, and past performance is not indicative of future results.