S&P Indices has launched the S&P AFE 40, an index designed to measure the performance of 40 leading companies from the Pan-Arab region. S&P Indices partnered with the Arab Federation of Exchanges (AFE) to create the Index which includes companies from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.
Robert Shakotko (pictured), Managing Director at S&P Indices, says: “We are seeing a growing interest among investors in Arab equities as this market begins to mature. The Arab Spring and the liberalisation of Arab countries seem to signal a new era of investment opportunities in the Arab world. We are delighted to have worked with the AFE to create the AFE 40 Index, which is timely and fulfils the demand from investors seeking to measure this important, growing segment of the market.”
Dr Fadi Khalaf, Secretary General at the Arab Federation of Exchanges, says: “The S&P AFE 40 is expected to be an important blue chip index in the Pan-Arab region, offering a true representation of the performance of leading, publicly traded companies trading on Arabian exchanges. We are excited to partner with one of the leading index providers in the world, S&P Indices, to offer this exciting, new benchmark to investors.”
The S&P AFE 40 is comprised of the 40 largest stocks (measured by float-adjusted market capitalisation) listed on AFE member exchanges subject to the following restrictions: each stock must have at least US$50 million in value traded over 12 months, there can be no more than 10 stocks per country, based on domicile, and at least one stock from each country must be included. In terms of weighting, the S&P AFE 40 uses a capped market capitalisation weighted index scheme, where the maximum weight of any constituent cannot exceed 10% and the maximum weight for each country, based on domicile cannot exceed 35%.
