New York, October 5, 2004 – Dow Jones Indexes announced the results of the first Dow Jones Global Titans 50 survey taken on the 5th anniversary of the first global blue-chip index, tracking the world’s largest and best-known companies.
More than one-third of the companies surveyed predicted growth in China will have the biggest positive impact on their business during the next five years. By a 2-to-1 margin, survey respondents see aging populations and skilled labor shortages as bigger obstacles to growth than terrorism or growth in China. Seventy-four percent also see stock ownership by international shareholders increasing during the next five years. Biotech, data mining and wireless ware are seen as the most critical technologies for the companies in the next five years.
The survey was completed in August 2004 and explored the opportunities, challenges and business trends these leading global blue-chip companies will face in the five years ahead.
The Dow Jones Global Titans 50 is a transparent, highly investable index built on a rules-based methodology composed of the most actively traded global stocks. The index is licensed to more than 32 financial institutions globally. More than $5 billion in assets is linked to the index among about 20 publicly traded funds.
Some questions addressed in the survey were: Where do members of the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 see their business coming from over the next five years? What markets? What will define value? What technologies will drive innovation?
The Dow Jones Global Titans 50 Index serves as a benchmark to track the performance of 50 of the largest multinational corporations as an overall asset class. Five years ago, Dow Jones Indexes recognized that the companies serving the world's consumers shared more in common with their multinational peers than their domestic counterparts. The index was created to reflect this growing trend toward global investing.