Dow Jones Indexes and RusIndex Company also created an advisory committee that will advise Dow Jones Indexes and RusIndex Company on the methodology of the new indexes in order to reflect the needs of the Russian financial market. The five members of the advisory committee are Sergei Ambartsumov, portfolio manager/head trader, Hermitage Capital Management; Steven Dashevsky, head of research, Aton Capital; Pavel Prosyankin, head of structured products, Troika Dialog; Denis Rodionov, deputy head of research, Brunswick UBS Warburg; and Sergei Suverov, head of research, Bank Zenit.
"Russia is the first emerging market to be added to our Titans family of blue-chip indexes as market participants ask for an investible index with a transparent index concept specially designed to underlie index-linked products such as derivatives and exchange-traded funds," said Lars Hamich, executive director of global business development, Dow Jones Indexes. "By cooperating with RusIndex, we combined our global index expertise with expertise about the Russian financial market, resulting in a premium index concept meeting the needs of Russian investors while also supporting clients domestically and internationally."
Commenting on the index launch, Alexei Mironov, managing director of RusIndex Company, said, "We see Russia joining the 12 markets for which Titans indexes are calculated as an important step in making this market closer to its developed counterparts. Russia has witnessed significant growth during the past few years and has become one of the most attractive markets in the world. As the Russian market develops, investors require a wider range of instruments for their needs."
Mironov added, "Being a success story in the developed markets, the index fund industry is now emerging in Russia. The Dow Jones RusIndex Titans 10 index satisfies demands from the Russian investment community for an index with a recognized and clear methodology suitable for underlying of investment products. We are also very glad to be advised by a diverse advisory committee whose members are among the top professionals in the market."
The Dow Jones RusIndex Titans 10 index is maintained according to a clear, unbiased and systematic methodology. The Dow Jones RusIndex Titans 10 Index will contain the largest and most liquid securities from all Russian stock exchanges. With 10 liquid stocks that cover 60% of the Russian market, the Dow Jones RusIndex Titans 10 will be easy to use as underlying for financial products such as exchange-traded funds or derivatives. The index is free-float market capitalization weighted, and weights are capped at 15% to prevent dominance by any individual company. The composition is reviewed annually in March.
The free-float market capitalization of the Dow Jones RusIndex Titans 10 as of June 30, 2003, is $26 billion. The index is distributed on a real-time basis through major market data vendors. Historical data on the Dow Jones RusIndex Titans 10 will be available back to December 31, 1998, with a base value of 100. The Dow Jones RusIndex Titans 10 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, 12 Dow Jones Country Titans indexes (that cover Europe, Asia, and North America), Dow Jones Tiger Titans 50 and the Dow Jones Islamic Titans 100.
The countries covered in the Dow Jones Country Titans family include France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Canada.
