DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 1, 2008 — Dow Jones Indexes today 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 United Arab Emirates. 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% 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.”
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% in each country in both indexes — and at 30% 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.
As of June 15, 2008, the top ten components for the Dow Jones GCC Index by free-float market capitalization are Mobile Telecommunications Co, Kuwait; Kuwait Finance House, Kuwait; National Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait; National Industries Group, Kuwait; Emaar Properties, United Arab Emirates; Dubai Financial Market, United Arab Emirates; Industries of Qatar, Qatar; Qatar National Bank, Qatar; DP World, United Arab Emirates and Public Warehousing Co, Kuwait.
The top ten components for the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC Index by float-adjusted market capitalization are Public Warehousing, Kuwait; Mobile Telecommunications, Kuwait; Investment Dar, Kuwait; Gulf Cable & Electrical Industries, Kuwait; Boubyan Petrochemicals, Kuwait; Emaar Properties, United Arab Emirates; National Real Estate, Kuwait; Du, United Arab Emirates; Qurain Petrochemical Industries, Kuwait; Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar and Arabtec Holding, United Arab Emirates.
As of June 15, 2008, the Dow Jones GCC Index and the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC Index had an annualized price return of 27.55% and 26.49% respectively from its base date December 31, 2003 in a backtest.(1)
The Dow Jones GCC and Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC indexes are calculated in U.S. dollar (USD) and are reviewed quarterly in March, June, September and December. For more information on the Dow Jones GCC Index and the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC Index, please visit www.djindexes.com.
(1) The Dow Jones GCC Index and the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC Index were first published in May 2008. 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. Back-tested performance information is purely hypothetical and is solely for informational purposes. It does not represent actual performance, and past performance is not indicative of future results.