Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, has launched the Dow Jones GCC and the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC indexes.

The new indexes measure the performance of conventional and Shari’ah compliant stocks of five of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and UAE.

The five countries included in the index represent the investible universe of the GCC region and will be the first in a series of conventional and Shari’ah compliant GCC indexes. The Dow Jones GCC and Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC indexes represent approximately 95 per cent of the float-adjusted market capitalization of the five countries.

“The launch of these new indexes for the GCC region acknowledges the growing global importance of one of the world’s most rapidly emerging and most sought after financial markets while further solidifying Dow Jones Indexes role as the leading index provider in the Middle East,” said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes.

“The Dow Jones GCC and the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC indexes enable an investor interested in Islamic as well as in conventional finance to participate in the performance of the region,” he added.

The Dow Jones GCC and Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC Indexes are weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization.

The weights of individual stocks are capped at 15 per cent in each country in both indexes — and at 30 per cent for Bahrain in the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC Index, in order to prevent the index from being dominated by certain securities.

Back-tested estimated daily index history is available for both indexes back to December 31, 2003.-TradeArabia News Service