GMP Securities L.P. has haunched a new index that tracks the performance of small to mid-capitalization Canadian oil and gas exploration and production companies that are publicly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The GMP Junior Oil and Gas Index, which is currently made up of 48 constituents, is calculated by Standard & Poor’s, GMP Capital Inc. (TSX: GMP) said Tuesday.

Index constituents have been quantitatively selected and are float-adjusted, market capitalization weighted, with the relative weight of any single index constituent being capped at 10%. The market capitalization of index constituents ranges from $100 million to $3 billion. The index will be rebalanced quarterly.

The top 10 constituents by weight as at January 31, are:

> Progress Energy Resources Corp., 7.7%
> Blackpearl Resources Inc., 7.2%
> Bankers Petroleum Ltd., 6.9%
> Legacy Oil + Gas Inc., 5.8%
> Petrobakken Energy Ltd., 5.7%
> Crew Energy Inc., 5.5%
> Birchcliff Energy Ltd., 4.8%
> Celtic Exploration Ltd., 4.7%
> Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd., 4.1%
> Ivanhoe Energy Inc., 3.2%

“This is the first time GMP Securities has been involved in the creation of an index. We believe the Canadian junior oil and gas sector did not have an appropriate real-time benchmark to track the relative securities performance and accurately reflect some of the key fundamental investment features of Canadian junior oil and gas companies,” says Wade Felesky, managing director, investment banking.

“Launching the GMP Junior Oil and Gas Index is a logical extension of GMP’s core strength and further advances our brand as a recognized leader in the North American resource sector,” Felesky adds.

BetaPro to launch ETF based on new index

Concurrent with the launch of the GMP Junior Oil and Gas Index, GMP Securities is also pleased to also announce that it has entered into exclusive licensing discussions with BetaPro Management Inc. (“BetaPro”) to use the GMP Junior Oil and Gas Index in an exchange traded fund offering. BetaPro has filed a preliminary prospectus in respect to the initial public offering of Class A units of the Horizons BetaPro GMP Junior Oil and Gas Index ETF (the “ETF”). The ETF’s investment objectives are to seek to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the GMP Junior Oil and Gas Index, net of expenses.

The index can be tracked live on Thomson ONE under the ticker symbol MPO/Y-CM, Reuters under the ticker symbol .GMPOG and on Bloomberg under the ticker GMPOG.

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