NEW YORK, Dec. 17, 2008 (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. All changes will be effective at the start of trading on Monday, December 22, 2008.
In the Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index, 481 components will be added while 226 components will be deleted. That brings the number of components in the index to 2,558.
With 252 additions and 147 deletions, the number of components in the Dow Jones Islamic Market Asia/Pacific Index will increase to 1,104. In the Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Index, 83 components will be added while 13 components will be deleted. That brings the number of components in the index to 477. The number of components in the Dow Jones Islamic Market Americas Index will increase to 823, with 26 additions and 61 deletions.
In the Dow Jones Islamic Market BRIC Equal Weighted Index, 4 components will be added while 13 components will be deleted. That brings the number of components in the index to 71.
In the Dow Jones Islamic Market China Offshore Index, 3 components will be added while 5 components will be deleted. That brings the number of components to 22. With 1 addition and 23 deletions, the number of components in the Dow Jones Islamic Market Hong Kong Index will decrease to 100. In the Dow Jones Islamic Market India Index, 9 components will be added while 24 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 increase to 33, with 1 addition and no deletion.
The total free-float market capitalization of the reconstituted Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index increased to US$12.05 trillion from US$11.52 trillion(1).
The total free-float market capitalization of the reconstituted Dow Jones Islamic Market Asia/Pacific Index increased to US$2.50 trillion from US$2.18 trillion, while the Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Index increased to US$3.12 trillion from US$2.97 trillion. As of December 15, 2008, the total free-float market capitalization of the reconstituted Dow Jones Islamic Market Americas Index decreased to US$6.18 trillion from US$6.26 trillion.
The total free-float market capitalization of the reconstituted Dow Jones Islamic Market BRIC Index decreased to US$5.17 trillion from US$5.34 trillion.
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 90 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 Islamic Market Industry Indexes -- Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability Indexes -- 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 Titans 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 and Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Titans 25 indexes are reviewed annually in June.
The Dow Jones DFM 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 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 & Company (www.dowjones.com) is a News Corporation company (NYSE:NWS) (NYSE:NWS.A) (ASX:NWS) (ASX:NWSLV) (www.newscorp.com). Dow Jones 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, Dow Jones Factiva, Dow Jones Client Solutions, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Its Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones owns 50% of SmartMoney and 33% of STOXX Ltd. and provides news content to radio stations in the U.S.
The Dow Jones & Company logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=4578
(1) The market capitalization values of all indexes cited in this
report are as of December 15, 2008.