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Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, today announced the launch of the S&P Southeast Asia 40 Index, a new index of 40 leading companies from the emerging Asian "tiger" economies of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
Alka Banerjee, Vice President of Standard & Poor's Index Services, says the S&P Southeast Asia 40 Index is designed to provide diversified, liquid exposure to four rapidly industrialising Asian markets beyond the original Asian Tigers of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
"Originally coined to refer to the particular model of economic development pursued by Japan in the 1960's, the term "tiger" has come to represent countries that are experiencing high rates of economic growth coupled with high levels of exports," Ms. Banerjee says. "Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand remain less developed than the original Tigers, but are expected to enjoy high levels of growth in the future."
Malaysia has the largest country weighting (34.77%) in the new index, which has returned 29.48% in the year to September 30, 2007. The top three constituents are PTT PCL (Thailand; 8.52%), Telekomunikasi Tbk Pt (Indonesia; 7.83%) and IOI Corporation BHD (Malaysia; 5.43%).
To be eligible for inclusion in the S&P Southeast Asia 40, companies must first be constituents of the S&P/IFCI country indices for Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines or Thailand. The S&P/IFCI indices are the investable subset of the S&P/IFCG indices and measure the performance of emerging market stocks that are legally and practically available to foreign investors.
Constituents must also have a minimum float-adjusted market capitalization of US$500 million, a three-month average daily value traded of at least US$1 million, and be domiciled in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, or Thailand. The index will be rebalanced annually in December.
For more information on the Standard & Poor's global indices, including methodology, visit: www.standardandpoors.com/indices