NEW YORK, March 26, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, and AMANA Securities Limited, a Trading Member of the Colombo Stock Exchange, today announced the launch of the Dow Jones Islamic Market AMANA Sri Lanka Index.
Separately, Dow Jones Indexes today launched the Dow Jones Sri Lanka Titans 20 Index, a blue-chip measure of the country's 20 largest and most liquid stocks.
The Dow Jones Islamic Market AMANA Sri Lanka Index tracks the performance of Sri Lankan companies that comply with Shari'ah-based investment principles and is the latest offering in the Dow Jones Islamic Market (DJIM) Index family. The index is designed to underlie financial products such as mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other investment vehicles.
"Islamic banking and finance is about $300 billion and growing at 15 percent a year -- faster than conventional finance in the GCC region and parts of Asia. Shari'ah-compliant investing is an area that we expect will only grow in the years ahead. The Dow Jones Islamic Market AMANA Sri Lanka Index provides Shari'ah-compliant investors access to stocks suitable for Islamic investment as well as exposure to an untapped emerging market. It is the latest addition to the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index suite, which was originally created in 1999 and continues to serve as the premier benchmark family for Islamic-based equity portfolios," said Michael A. Petronella, president of Dow Jones Indexes and Reprints.
"The launch of the Indexes is indeed a momentous occasion, not just for Amana but for the country as a whole. As the pioneering and sole provider of a Shari'ah-compliant equity trading platform in Sri Lanka, Amana Securities Limited hopes to provide the global investing community, especially in the burgeoning Islamic Finance industry, a mechanism to facilitate their entry into an Emerging Market with very strong credentials. We are also greatly honoured and privileged to be associated with Dow Jones Indexes through our licensing relationship, a relationship that served as the catalyst in the formation of both, the Dow Jones Islamic Market AMANA Sri Lanka Index as well as the Dow Jones Sri Lanka Titans 20 Index," said Ishrat Rauff, managing director/CEO of Amana Securities Limited, Sri Lanka.
To be included in the Dow Jones Islamic Market AMANA Sri Lanka Index, stocks must pass industry and financial ratio screens. Companies that are involved in alcohol, defense/weapons, entertainment, financial services, pork-related products and tobacco are excluded.
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 10 stocks in the Dow Jones Islamic Market AMANA Sri Lanka Index. As of March 23, 2007, the year-to-date performance of the index is 3.07%.
Launched in 1999, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes seeks to measure the global universe of investable equities that pass screens for Shari'ah compliance. The index family includes more than 60 regional, country and industry indexes derived from the flagship Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index. The DJIM Indexes combines Islamic investment principles with Dow Jones Indexes' objective, transparent and rules-based methodology.
A six-member supervisory board of Islamic scholars also counsels Dow Jones Indexes on the Shari'ah compliance of eligible stocks for the DJIM.
The Dow Jones Islamic Market AMANA Sri Lanka Index is weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization and component weights are capped at 15%. The index is reviewed on a quarterly basis. Daily history is available back to August 31, 2005, with a base value of 1000.
The new Dow Jones Sri Lanka Titans 20 Index is designed to underlie financial products and joins the Dow Jones Country Titans Index family. To be eligible for inclusion, companies are ranked first by float-adjusted market capitalization and then by 12-month average daily currency trading volume. A final rank is then applied based on an equally weighted combination of companies' market capitalization rank and currency trading-volume rank. The top 20 stocks make up the components of the Dow Jones Sri Lanka Titans 20 Index. Any stock with more than 10 non-trading days in the previous quarter is excluded.
The index is weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization and component weights are capped at 15%. The index is reviewed annually in March. Daily history is available back to December 31, 2004 with a base value of 100.
Both indexes are calculated in U.S. Dollar (USD) and Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR). For more information, please visit www.djindexes.com.
Journalists may e-mail questions regarding this press release to PR-Indexes@dowjones.com or contact Dow Jones Indexes/STOXX press office:
New York: +1-212-597-5720 Frankfurt: +49-69-29-725-290
Or Amana Securities Limited media contact:
Zahir Amanulla, CEO, Vista Advertising and Business Consultants: zahir@sltnet.lk
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 59 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
Dow Jones Indexes is part of Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ) (dowjones.com), which is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes Dow Jones Newswires, Factiva, Dow Jones Licensing Services, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Its Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.
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About Amana Securities Limited
Amana Securities Limited (ASL) is a subsidiary of the pioneer provider of Islamic financial services in Sri Lanka, Amana Investments Limited. ASL is a Trading Member of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and is one of just twenty stockbroking companies licensed to operate on the CSE. We offer the unique service of identifying and trading in listed companies complying with parameters as prescribed by globally renowned Shariah scholars. ASL also has the proud distinction of launching the 'DJIM Amana Sri Lanka Index', in collaboration with Dow Jones Indexes, U.S.A., the only Islamic Index in Sri Lanka.