Dow Jones Launches Index for Persian Gulf Stocks

Dow Jones Indexes launched the Dow Jones GCC and the Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC indexes. According to a press release, the new indexes measure the performance of conventional and Shari’ah compliant stocks of five of the 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 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, according to the release. Back-tested estimated daily index history is available for both indexes back to December 31, 2003.

Component Parts

As of June 15, 2008, the top 10 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 10 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.

Returns

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, according to the release.

The Dow Jones GCC and Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC indexes are calculated in U.S. dollar and reviewed quarterly in March, June, September, and December.