ZURICH, Switzerland, Jan. 31, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- STOXX Limited, the leading European index provider, and SAM Group, a pioneer in sustainability investing, today launched the first blue-chip benchmarks within the well-established family of Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability Indexes. The new offering provides investors with liquid and tradable benchmarks to track sustainability leaders in Europe and the eurozone.
The Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability 40 Index and Dow Jones EURO STOXX Sustainability 40 Index will comprise the biggest 40 sustainability leaders from the two regions. Components for the two blue-chip indexes are selected from the existing, broad Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability Index, which includes the top European companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria.
In contrast to the market cap-based weighting schemes that dominate today's index offerings, the Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability 40 Index and the Dow Jones EURO STOXX Sustainability 40 Index are weighted according to sustainability scores and are, thus, based on the results of SAM's annual sustainability assessment. The scores are derived from a comprehensive analysis of general as well as industry-specific criteria covering all three dimensions of sustainability -- economic, environmental and social.
"Over the last years, we have not only seen growing interest in sustainability, but also rising demand for indexes that use other weighting factors than market cap, like our successful dividend-weighted index family," said Lars Hamich, managing director, STOXX Limited. "This alternative weighting scheme ensures that the leading companies in the context of sustainability will always have the highest weighting in the index regardless of the size."
He added, "Our new blue-chip sustainability benchmarks account for both developments and provide a solid underlying for innovative, sustainability-driven products."
"The recognition of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes has grown significantly over the last years," said Alexander Barkawi, managing director, SAM Indexes. "We are excited to build up on this strong platform with the introduction of tradable indexes where both the selection and weighting of stocks reflects sustainability leadership."
The Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes were launched in 1999 and today comprise sets of global, European, eurozone, North American and U.S. sustainability indexes. They are based on the cooperation of Dow Jones Indexes, STOXX Limited and SAM Group, and comprise the leading companies in terms of long-term economic, environmental and social criteria. Today, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes family is licensed to investment firms in 14 countries as underlying and benchmark for a variety of financial products including mutual funds, separate accounts, structured products and an exchange-traded fund listed on Euronext. In total, more than $US4 billion presently is managed in investment vehicles based on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.
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