STOXX Ltd., the leading European index provider, today announced that it has licensed its three real-estate indexes, the Dow Jones STOXX Americas 600 Real Estate Index, the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Real Estate Index, and the Dow Jones STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 Real Estate Index to Indexchange, the German investment company that specializes in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It is the first time that the indexes will serve as the underlying for ETFs. Indexchange is expected to launch the real-estate ETFs on September 26, 2006.
The Dow Jones STOXX 600 Real Estate Index, the Dow Jones STOXX Americas 600 Real Estate Index and the Dow Jones STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 Real Estate Index measure the performance of publicly traded real estate securities as the leading Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) and Real Estate Holding & Development stocks in Europe, Americas and Asia/Pacific according to the definition of the Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB). The indexes are derived from the Dow Jones STOXX Global 1800 Index, a broad benchmark index comprising the 600 largest stocks by free float market capitalization from each of the three regions: Europe, Americas and Asia/Pacific.
”The three Dow Jones STOXX Global Real Estate Indexes are focused tools to measure the performance of the real estate market in three regions that often run in different cycles. Coupled with the low correlation to equity markets and high liquidity of the underlying component stocks, the indexes are an ideal instrument to be used as underlying for ETFs suitable for investors who seek to diversify their investments”, said Lars Hamich, managing director, STOXX Ltd.
The Dow Jones STOXX 600 Real Estate Index currently comprises 22 components, the Dow Jones STOXX Americas 600 Real Estate Index currently contains 20 components and the Dow Jones STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 Real Estate Index currently has 39 components.
Over the last three years, the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Real Estate Index went up 133,43%, the Dow Jones STOXX Americas 600 Real Estate Index gained 65,26% and the Dow Jones STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 Real Estate Index rose 68,55% as of September 21, 2006.
The Dow Jones STOXX Global Real Estate Indexes were launched on March 20, 2006.
