(December 4 – 09:40 ET) – Dow Jones Indexes is set to launch the Dow Jones Asian Titans Index. The index tracks blue chip companies based in the Asia/Pacific region.

Dow Jones says the index will contain 50 of the largest and best-known companies in the Asia/Pacific region. Half of them will be Japanese companies; the other 25 will be from Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

The components are selected from the Dow Jones Asia/Pacific Index; and are picked based on free-float market capitalization, revenues, net income, book value and assets. The index is market cap weighted and weights are capped at 10%. Dow Jones says the component weights are reviewed quarterly based on market capitalization and free-float data as of the third Friday of March, June, September and December.

Stocks in the initial index have a combined market capitalization of US$1.356 trillion and represents 37.8 % of the market cap of the whole Asian/Pacific region. The 25 Japanese companies will make up 75.8% of the index, followed by Australia (9.1%), Hong Kong (8.3%), South Korea (2.6%), Taiwan (2.0%), Singapore (1.5%), and Malaysia (0.7%).

Michael Petronella, managing director of Dow Jones Indexes, says, “The Dow Jones Asian Titans Index offers investors around the world a very liquid and easy way to gain exposure to the Asia/Pacific region. An essential benefit of using this index as the basis of financial products for investors is reducing the risk associated with investing in a single country.”

The Asian Titans Index is part of the Dow Jones Titans series of indexes, including the Global Titans index, introduced in 1999.
-IE Staff