DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 13, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today announced that it licensed the Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 Total Return Index with Saudi Local UAE Index (Dow Jones GCC Titans 50), the first index authorized by Tadawul to include Saudi Arabian stocks, to National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD). The index will serve as the basis for an exchange-traded fund (ETF), to be listed at the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. This ETF based on the GCC blue-chip index will be the first one available to market participants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market. NBAD intends to launch the ETF soon, pending regulatory approval.
The Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 measures the performance of 50 leading component stocks traded in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
"The Gulf region is one of the world's fastest growing and most sought after markets. Offering the Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 presents market participants for the first time access to an authorized regional blue-chip index that includes the widely sought after Saudi Arabian stock market," said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. "As part of the Titans index family, this index represents the biggest and most liquid blue-chip stocks for the GCC region and facilitates investor participation in an important world market."
Alan Durrant, chief investment officer, Asset Management Group, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, said, "National Bank of Abu Dhabi has a proud history of being at the forefront of innovation. As the UAE's leading bank, we are well placed to understand the changing needs of investors and the investment tools that will meet those needs. The ETF market place has demonstrated enormous growth in recent years and we believe that this will continue. We believe that an ETF that provides timely, cost effective access to a broad GCC portfolio will prove very popular with local investors. In addition, it is clear that international interest in the Gulf is growing and an ETF can provide a way for global institutions to invest in our region."
To be eligible for the Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 a stock must have an average daily trading volume of at least US$500,000. The three largest companies of each of the six GCC member states are included in the index. The remaining 32 components are selected top-down from the index universe.
The Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 is weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization. Back-tested estimated daily index history is available December 31, 2003.[i] The Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 is reviewed annually in June and calculated in U.S. dollar.
As of October 12, 2009, the top ten components of the Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 are Al Rajhi Bank (Saudi Arabia), Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (Saudi Arabia), Mobile Telecommunications Co. (Kuwait), Emirates Telecommunications (UAE); National Bank of Kuwait (Kuwait), Saudi Telecom Co. (Saudi Arabia), First Gulf Bank (UAE), Samba Financial Group (Saudi Arabia), Kuwait Finance House (Kuwait), Saudi British Bank (Saudi Arabia).
The index further complement the existing range of Dow Jones and Dow Jones Islamic Market indexes for the GCC and MENA regions which are the Dow Jones GCC ex-Saudi Index, the Dow Jones GCC, Dow Jones GCC Titans 40 Index, the Dow Jones Arabia Titans 50 Index, the Dow Jones UAE Select Index, the Dow Jones Bahrain Index, the Dow Jones Kuwait Composite, the Dow Jones Kuwait Titans 30 Index, the Dow Jones MSM Index, the Dow Jones ASE 100 Index, the Dow Jones EGX Egypt Titans 20 Index, the Dow Jones Total Stock Market Indexes for Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and UAE, the Dow Jones FEAS Composite Index, the Dow Jones SAFE 100 Index; the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC, Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC ex-Saudi Index, the Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Kuwait, the Dow Jones DFM Index and the Dow Jones DFM Titans 10 Index.
For more information on the Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 Total Return Index with Saudi Local UAE Index, please visit http://www.djindexes.com/gcc/.
Journalists may e-mail questions regarding this press release to PR-Indexes@dowjones.com.
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[i] The Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 with Saudi Index was first published on July 1, 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.