S&P launches Islamic Gulf indices

Standard & Poor's has announced the launch of a fully investable GCC Shariah Index for Muslim investors. The S&P GCC Shariah Series have been designed to capture the largest and most liquid stocks across the Gulf. The move paves the way for the creation of mutual funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and structured products to help enhance liquidity and improve risk management across the Gulf's highly concentrated equity markets.

There is an index for each GCC market, as well as the S&P GCC Investable Shariah and S&P GCC Composite Shariah Index.

Alka Banerjee, vice president of Standard & Poor's Index Services, said: "A lack of globally accepted benchmarks and other tailored investment tools is constraining the development of Shariah-related equity investing around the world. Together, these new S&P Shariah indices will provide Islamic investors and asset managers with a rigorous and consistent set of benchmarks and offer product providers the opportunity to develop structured products tailored to the Islamic market, while drawing on the liquidity and investability of S&P indices."