BNP Paribas Asset Management (AM), a leader in the European asset management industry, has signed a licensing agreement with Dow Jones Indexes and STOXX Ltd. to issue financial products on the Dow Jones STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 ex Japan, the Dow Jones South Korea Titans 30, the Dow Jones CASE Egypt Titans 20 and the Dow Jones Turkey Titans 20 Indexes. All indexes will serve as underlying for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and will start trading today at Euronext, Paris.
“The Dow Jones STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 ex Japan Index provides market participants with a broad exposure to the core developed financial markets within the Asia-Pacific region. The indexes for South Korea, Egypt and Turkey follow the methodology of the Dow Jones Titans index series. Thus, investors may tap into these dynamically evolving markets by comparable, transparent and stringent principles of a well established index series. By adding these four indexes BNP Paribas further internationalizes their ETF range based on Dow Jones and Dow Jones STOXX Indexes,” said Werner Bürki, chairman, STOXX supervisory board.
“BNP Paribas is expanding the EasyETF range in terms of thematic and geographical allocations. We chose the Dow Jones Country Titans indexes for South Korea, Turkey and Egypt as underlying as they give easy access to these thriving markets through major blue-chip stocks. In addition, the Dow Jones STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 ex Japan index covers the main developed countries of this strongly evolving region and is therefore an ideal completion to the existing EasyETF range representing Asian developed and emerging markets,” says Danièle Tohme Adet , head of business development, ETF and Indexed Funds, BNP Paribas Asset Management.
The Dow Jones STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 ex Japan Index is a broad and investable index for the Asia/Pacific region currently including 213 components from Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore. Back-tested estimated historical data of the Dow Jones STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 ex Japan Index is available back to December 31, 19911. The index is reviewed quarterly and weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization. Each component can have a maximum weight of 20% in the index.
The Dow Jones South Korea Titans 30 Index is launched today and measures the 30 largest and most liquid stocks listed on the Korean Stock Exchange. Any security that trades less than 10 days per quarter is excluded. Historical data of the Dow Jones South Korea Titans 30 Index is available back to December 31, 1991 . The index is reviewed annually in March and weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization with individual components capped at 10%.
The Dow Jones CASE Egypt Titans 20 Index was launched on April 12, 2006 and measures the 20 largest stocks traded at the Cairo and Alexandra Stock Exchanges (CASE). The index is weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization, sales/revenue and net profit with the largest component capped at 35% and all other components capped at 20%.
The Dow Jones Turkey Titans 20 Index was launched on August 3, 2004 and already serves as underlying for exchange-traded funds. The index comprises the 20 largest and most liquid companies traded at the Istanbul Stock Exchange. The index is weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization with individual components capped at 10%.
For further information on the Dow Jones Country Titans Indexes and the Dow Jones STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 ex Japan Index please visit www.djindexes.com and http://www.stoxx.com.
