.jpg)
The average P/E ratio of SSE 380 Index was 35.8, higher than 17.5 of the overall average P/E ratio of the companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and close to 37 of that of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), SSE Vice President Zhou Qinye said at the launch ceremony of SSE 380 Index yesterday. Quite a few fund companies have expressed their desire to develop products based on SSE 380 Index, while the SSE is also looking forward to the early introduction of relevant products.
Zhou said that today's investment is mainly indexation investment, which requires the provision of a series of indices for the multi-layer market to depict the market features and satisfy the investors' needs of observing the market in multiple levels and angles. A few years ago, the SSE introduced the SSE 50 Index and SSE 180 Index. Now, the number of companies, market capitalization and turnover of the SSE 180 Index account for 20%, 73% and 55% of that of all 890 SSE-listed companies, respectively. The SSE 180 Index enables investors to learn the features of big-cap blue chips listed on the SSE. As most SSE 180 Index constituent companies develop from small and medium sized enterprises, it is necessary to develop an index to describe the overall performance of medium sized enterprises with good growth prospect, strong profitability and distinct industry representativeness. SSE 380 Index is just the result of that effort. It is expected that the newly launched index would join with SSE 50 Index and SSE 180 Index in depicting the characters of the multi-layer blue-chip SSE market made up of big-cap blue chips.
SSE 380 Index, taking December 31, 2003 as the base day and 1,000 points as the base point, opened at 4,500 points and closed at 4527.28 points yesterday, according to Zhou.
Ma Zhigang, General Manager of China Securities Index Co., Ltd. (CSI), and Professor Xu Guoxiang, Member of the Index Experts Committee, also attended the ceremony yesterday. Ma said that the release of SSE 380 Index not only embodied the SSE's strategic planning for blue-chip market development and depicted the structure and future evolution of Shanghai stock market but also enriched the SSE index system and offered a new development target for indexation products. After the launch of SSE 380 Index, CSI would make consistent efforts to support the development of SSE 380 Index based investment products by investment institutions including fund management companies and create more SSE 380 Index based derived indices, such as industry index, style index, etc.
Xu noted that the significance of the introduction of SSE 380 Index lies in three aspects. First, it makes the SSE index system more scientific and integrated. Second, it helps investors establish an industry policy oriented investment concept paying attention to listed companies' business performance and growth potential. Third, it provides investors with a new analytical tool and investment target.
