“Now, for the first time, investors will be able to participate in the performance of the Turkish stock market by investing in the Dow Jones Istanbul 20 ETF,” said Lars Hamich, managing director of STOXX Ltd., the joint venture responsible for Dow Jones Indexes’ business development in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. “The Dow Jones Titans index series was created to meet market demand for efficient tools that could be used as the underlying benchmark for investment products. Due to its rules-based methodology and data transparency, the Dow Jones Turkey Titans 20 Index is an ideal proxy for the Turkish market.”
“Finans Portfoy aims to deliver a world-class product for the Turkish and foreign investment community. The licensing agreement with Dow Jones Indexes plays a pivotal role in this project,” said Dr. Omer Aras, executive board member of Finansbank.
He added: “The American Stock Exchange provided us with the know-how for Dow Jones Istanbul 20 ETF while the Capital Markets Board of Turkey, the Istanbul Stock Exchange and Takasbank played crucial roles to create the legal, trading and operational infrastructure for ETFs in Turkey. We believe our Dow Jones Istanbul 20 ETF will help the retail and institutional investors to develop additional tools to invest in a rapidly developing market, which is on its way to becoming a member of European Union.”
This new Dow Jones Istanbul 20 ETF will be the first exchange-listed product linked to the Dow Jones Turkey Titans 20 Index, and the first ETF in Turkey. The Dow Jones Turkey Titans 20 index was launched Aug. 3, 2004.
The 20 stocks selected for the Dow Jones Turkey Titans 20 are the largest and most liquid securities in the Turkish market. The Dow Jones Turkey Titans 20 index is free-float market capitalization weighted with individual component weights capped at 10% to prevent dominance by any individual company. Its free-float market capitalization amounts to $14 billion as of Sept. 16, 2004.
The Dow Jones Turkey Titans 20 is 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; Dow Jones Tiger Titans 50; and the Dow Jones Islamic Titans 100.
The indexes are distributed on a real-time basis through major market data vendors. Historical data on the Dow Jones Turkey Titans 20 index will be available back to Dec. 31, 2002, with a base value of 100.
The full list of components, including weightings and values of the Dow Jones Turkey Titans 20 Index, is available on www.djindexes.com.
