NEW INDICES IN FORIEGN LAND

Premier stock exchange BSE and S&P Dow Jones, which are in joint venture S&P BSE Sensex, plan to launch more indices in the country and abroad. BSE has joined hands with S&P Dow Jones Indices for the joint venture 'S&P BSE Sensex'. Under the collaboration, the S&P brand would be used for Sensex and other indices such as BSE 200 and BSE 100. In response to a query on whether the JV would come out with new stock indices in India and abroad, BSE Managing Director and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan replied in the affirmative. "Yes of course. Not only new indices but how do we market the current indices well in India and abroad," he said recently. S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies is the world's largest, global resource for index-based concepts, data and research. Recently, the joint venture had launched the S&P BSE 500 Shariah index, comprising the largest 500 companies in the Indian index. This new index has been designed to represent all Shariah-compliant stocks of the broad-based S&P BSE 500 index. Shariah, an Islamic canonical law, has certain structures regarding finance and commercial activities permitted for Muslims. According to Chauhan, the joint venture would look for trading the indices in various South Asian markets. "For marketing effectively, it would be places where there is a need for investment in India from those countries such as the US, Europe and Gulf countries," he said. From February onwards, S&P has started running all the BSE indices. "They are also trying to additional back office work from S&P worldwide for this joint venture company. South Asian indices will also be coming into this joint venture," Chauhan said. Meanwhile, the partnership with BSE would allow S&P Dow Jones Indices to implement its South Asia growth strategy and also permit S&P Dow Jones Indices to have a fourth major operational hub by which to support clients globally after operations in Hong Kong, London and New York.