Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, Tuesday launched an additional set of conventional and Shariah- compliant indexes measuring the performance of stocks listed in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Middle East and North Africa. The four indexes are the Dow Jones GCC Index, Dow Jones GCC Islamic Market Index, Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 with Saudi and Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA indexes. The Dow Jones GCC indexes that are launched today include companies from all six member states of the GCC, which are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA Index includes all GCC countries plus Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. “Dow Jones Indexes is the first and currently only international index provider authorized by Tadawul to use real-time data of the Saudi stock market. Offering these indexes is an important milestone for us and shows yet again Dow Jones Indexes' leading position in the Middle East,” said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. “The new indexes launched today, give market participants for the first time access to authorized regional conventional and Shariah-compliant indexes that include the widely sought after Saudi Arabian stock market.” The Dow Jones Islamic Market GCC and the Dow Jones Islamic Market MENA indexes are part of the Dow Jones Islamic Market index series and measure the stock performance of companies that have passed rules-based screens for Shariah compliance. Among excluded companies are those in which the following financial ratios are 33 percent or more: debt divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization; cash plus interest-bearing securities divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization; and accounts receivables divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization. To be eligible for the Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 with Saudi Index a stock must have an average daily trading volume of at least $500,000. The three largest companies of each of the six GCC member states are included in the index. __
