Responding to market demand from Australian investors for a comprehensive, dedicated LPT tool based on rules and a clear methodology, SFE licensed the Dow Jones Australia LPT Index as the underlying for its LPT futures contract. The SFE Listed Property Trust Futures contract will be launched June 21, 2005.
“The Dow Jones Australia LPT Index provides investors with a transparent and objective tool to measure an investment class that has outperformed the major equity market indexes in recent years,” said Lars Hamich, managing director of STOXX Ltd., the joint venture that is responsible for Dow Jones Indexes’ business development in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. “The index was developed due to market demand from Australian investors for a comprehensive tool based on rules and a clear methodology.”
Mr. Hamich continued, “The index is designed to underlie investment products, and will allow investors to participate in the performance of the Australian real-estate market. The Sydney Futures Exchange is providing an excellent platform to make this futures contract successful. We also expect additional market participants to issue trading and hedging tools based on the index.”
"A survey of market participants indicated demand for an index providing efficient replication of the LPT sector using fewer constituent stocks, thereby minimizing transaction costs,” said Ken Atchison, managing director of Atchison Consultants. “By incorporating these characteristics into the Dow Jones Australia LPT Index, Dow Jones Indexes and SFE have provided the prospect of a highly liquid futures contract.”
With only 15 components at the present time, the Dow Jones Australian LPT Index represents 90% of the float-adjusted market capitalization of the Australian LPT universe. The index includes securities traded on the Australian Stock Exchange, which are classified as LPTs, according to the Industry Classification Benchmark—a global sector classification standard. This makes the Dow Jones Australia LPT Index an accurate measure of the Australian real-estate sector, while being a highly liquid and tradable underlying.
The Dow Jones Australia LPT Index is calculated both in U.S. and Australian dollars. Since its inception on Dec. 31, 2001, the index is up 14.24% (annualized total return), while the indexes float-market capitalization is US$57.5 billion (A$73.6 billion) as of April 29, 2005. It will be reviewed quarterly in March, June, September and December.
The full list of components, including weightings and values of the Dow Jones Australian LPT Index, is available on www.djindexes.com.
