STOXX Launches Islamic Indices - First Set Of Shariah Compliant Indices For Europe Introduced

STOXX Limited, the market-moving provider of innovative, substantial and global index concepts, today announced the launch of the STOXX Europe Islamic Index and its two blue-chip sub-indices, the STOXX Europe Islamic 50 and EURO STOXX Islamic 50. The three new indices measure the performance of Shariah-compliant companies selected from the STOXX Europe 600 Index.

The STOXX Europe Islamic Indices are designed to act both as a proper benchmark for actively managed funds, and to underlie exchange-traded funds and other investable products that enable investors to participate in the performance of European companies which are in line with the moral and social doctrines of the Islam.

"With the launch of the STOXX Europe Islamic Indices, STOXX takes another step to broaden its faith-based index offering by offering three Shariah compliant indices for Europe and the Euro zone," said Hartmut Graf, chief executive officer, STOXX Ltd. "The number of market participants who wish to invest in accordance with their religious beliefs, or to participate in the performance of companies which act responsibly in terms of economic, environmental and social directives, is growing constantly. Therefore, STOXX will continuously expand its innovative index offering in this area to meet the demand."

The index universe for the STOXX Europe Islamic Index is defined as all stocks in the STOXX Europe 600 Index. To be included in the index, stocks must pass two sets of screens. In a first step, all companies with significant activity in one of the following sectors or activities are removed: non-halal food production; tobacco; alcohol; gambling; advertisement; hotels; non-Islamic banks, financial institutions and insurance companies; entertainment and music production; trading of gold and silver, as well as weaponry and arms manufacturers. In a second step, financial ratios of the remaining companies are screened: income from interest and non-Shariah compliant activities cannot exceed 5% of the company's total income. Furthermore, the ratio of non-Sharia compliant debt to either the company's total assets or total market capitalization - whichever is greater - cannot exceed 33%. In addition, the total ratio of interest bearing assets to the company's total assets or total market capitalization can also not exceed 33%.

The STOXX Europe Islamic 50 and EURO STOXX Islamic 50 Index are derived from the STOXX Europe Islamic Index and consist of its 50 largest stocks in Europe and the Euro zone, respectively.
To ensure the quality of the indices and the integrity of the underlying index methodology, an independent Shariah Supervisory Board has been established to define and build the screening criteria, as well as to oversee the process. It is made up from three Shariah scholars specializing in Islamic finance: Dr. Abdul Aziz Khalifah Al-Qassar, Dr. Eissa Zaki Eissa and Dr. Esam Al-Enezi.

The STOXX Europe Islamic Indices are weighted by free-float adjusted market capitalization, available in price, net and gross return versions and calculated in Euro and U.S. Dollars (USD). They are reviewed quarterly in March, June, September and December. Daily history is available back to December 31, 2004. Each component's weight in the STOXX Europe Islamic Index is capped at 20% of the index's total free-float market capitalization, while the components' weights for the blue-chip indices are capped at 10% of the respective index's total free-float market capitalization.

The STOXX Europe Islamic Indices are the newest addition to the STOXX ESG Index family, which also comprises the STOXX Europe Christian and STOXX Sustainability Indices. Please see www.stoxx.com for further information on this index family.