Dow Jones Indexes and Dubai International Financial Centre Cooperate to Create Index for Arabia Region

DUBAI (Oct. 6, 2003) — Dow Jones Indexes today announced that it will launch the Dow Jones DIFC Arab Titans 50 index, a regional blue-chip index that covers Arab countries in the Middle East, in the first quarter of 2004. The index, which is based on the stock prices of 50 leading companies in the region, was developed jointly by Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, and the Dubai International Financial Centre in cooperation with the Dubai based investment bank SHUAA Capital.

Once launched, the Dubai Regional Exchange, a core component of the Dubai International Financial Centre, is expected to list financial products that will be based on the index. SHUAA Capital, is the first investment bank who has expressed an interest to license and introduce a financial product based on the index.

Lars Hamich, executive director, global business development at Dow Jones Indexes pointed out, “The index was developed due to the growing demand for a blue-chip index covering the whole Arab region, which is unique. With the Dow Jones DIFC Arabia Titans 50 we will provide an investable index, a transparent index concept and a methodology consistent with all indexes in our Dow Jones Titans family. The index is designed to underlie investment products such as funds, exchange-traded funds, structured products and derivatives.”

Lynton Jones, chairman of the Dubai Regional Exchange, said: “The launch of this new unique benchmark will greatly enhance the attractiveness of the Middle East for emerging market investors. Historically, global investors have been reluctant to maintain, let alone exceed, their portfolio weightings in this fast growing region because of liquidity and other concerns. We are confident that funds linked to this new index and traded on an efficient financial exchange such as the Dubai Regional Exchange, will attract widespread investor interest.”

The countries represented in the index will initially include: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates. The country universe of the index is generally open to any Arab market that is established and proves to be active and open to international investors.

The Dow Jones DIFC Arabia Titans 50 will be part of the Dow Jones Titans series of indexes. The series comprises the Dow Jones Global Titans 50, Dow Jones Sector Titans 30 with 18 global sector indexes, Dow Jones Asian Titans 50, 14 Dow Jones Country Titans indexes (that cover Europe, Asia, and North America), Dow Jones Tiger Titans 50 and Dow Jones Islamic Titans 100.

The DIFC:
The DIFC is being established to position Dubai as a universally recognized hub for institutional finance and as the regional gateway for capital and investment to in the Middle East. A critical component of this is the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). The Authority is an independent unitary regulatory authority responsible for the oversight of asset management, banking, securities trading, Islamic finance, re-insurance and a regional financial exchange.

The DFSA is being created using principle-based primary legislation modeled closely on that used in London and New York and its regulatory regime will operate to standards that meet or exceed those applying in the world’s major financial centres. The Authority expects to license blue-chip institutions operating in a variety of industry sectors with a primary focus on the wholesale markets.

The Dubai Regional Exchange is the first international exchange to be launched in the 21st century. Based on state of the art technology, this fully electronic marketplace will be capable of trading a wide range of securities, including: equities, bonds, funds (including index funds), Islamic compliant products, derivatives, commodities and alternative risk products.