NEW YORK, Feb. 18, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, celebrates the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Dow Jones Islamic Market (DJIM) Indexes. Dow Jones Indexes was the first index provider which developed a method for screening equity indexes according to Shari'ah law. Today, this index family is used as basis for many investment products and was the first to be licensed as underlying for an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index was launched in February 1999 as the first benchmark to measure the performance of a global universe of Shari'ah-compliant investable equities. Over the past decade, the Dow Jones Islamic Market index series has been expanded to more than 100 indexes for all major established and emerging financial markets, regions and sectors. Amongst these are Islamic indexes for the ASEAN, BRIC and GCC regions, for India as well as for global and Malaysian blue-chips.

"The decade of Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes is a prolific success story of its own. Dow Jones Indexes has turned what was considered an exotic idea into a cutting edge series of Shari'ah-compliant indexes and has been playing a leading role in further fostering and shaping the Islamic indexing world ever since. We have not only continuously expanded the Dow Jones Islamic Market index series, but were also first movers in Sukuk indexing and combining Islamic with sustainability criteria in the Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability Index," said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. "Our superior and unique Islamic indexes are widely accepted by market participants around the globe. Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes not only have been chosen to underlie the first-ever Islamic exchange-traded funds worldwide, but also they have won a total of sixteen prestigious industry awards for Islamic index innovation and excellence in the past five years," he continued.

"Islamic indexing is an exciting yet challenging way of measuring markets. Strict industry and financial-ratio screenings for Shari'ah compliance defined by the unique and sophisticated methodology of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes add additional layers to usual procedures of index creation and maintenance. Our index teams in Asia, Europe and in the U.S. continuously monitor and actively maintain a global selection universe of thousands of companies and review all Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes on a quarterly basis. In addition, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index Shari'ah Supervisory Board has been advising on the methodology and matters related to Shari'ah compliance right from day one of this thrilling indexing initiative. These combined efforts have been, are and will be the key to Dow Jones Indexes outstanding success in Islamic indexing," added John Prestbo, editor and executive director, Dow Jones Indexes.

The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes follow a unique methodology combining industry with financial ratio screenings. To be eligible for the indexes, a company must meet Shari'ah principles for acceptable products, business activities, debt levels and interest income and expenses. As a result, any company whose core business involves alcohol, conventional financial services, entertainment, pork-related products, tobacco or weapon production is excluded. In a second step, companies with unacceptable levels of debt or impure interest income are excluded.

Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes are designed to serve as underlying or benchmark for financial products such as exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and structured products. There are currently more than 75 licensees with more than US$7 billion in assets tied to the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes.

Milestones of a decade of Islamic indexing by Dow Jones Indexes:

 February 1999  launch of the Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index
 August 1999    launch of first mutual fund tracking the Dow Jones
                Islamic Market World Index
 January 2006   launch of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability
                Index
 January 2006   Dow Jones Islamic Market Turkey Index chosen to
                underlie first Islamic ETF in Turkey
 March 2006     Launch of the Dow Jones Citigroup Sukuk Index, the
                first Sukuk index worldwide
 January 2007   the Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index chosen
                to underlie first global Islamic ETF
 January 2008   launch of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Malaysia Titans
                25 Index serving as a basis for the first Islamic ETF
                in Asia
 February 2008  Dow Jones Indexes named Best Islamic Index Provider in
                Euromoney Awards, U.K.
 June 2008      Dow Jones Indexes honoured with Global Recognition in
                Islamic Finance for a Financial Institution at
                International Islamic Finance Forum, U.A.E
 October 2008   Dow Jones Indexes named Best Shariah-Compliant Index
                Provider in Global Finance awards, U.S.
 December 2008  expansion of the Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index
                to cover 54 countries worldwide
 December 2008  Dow Jones Indexes named Most Outstanding Islamic Index
                Provider of the Year at Kuala Lumpur Islamic Finance
                Forum (KLIFF), Malaysia
 January 2009   Dow Jones Indexes named Best Islamic Index Provider in
                Islamic Finance News poll, Malaysia

For more information on the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes, please visit www.djindexes.com.

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

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.

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