The Hindu Business Line : Murdoch launches DJ India Titans 30 Index

New benchmark: Mr Rupert Murdoch (left), Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corporation, with Mr Robert Thomson, Managing Editor, The Wall Street Journal, at a press conference to announce the launch of the Dow Jones India Titans 30 Index in Mumbai on Monday. –

Our Bureau

Mumbai, Aug. 4 An index of 30 leading Indian company stocks, Dow Jones India Titans 30 Index, was launched today by Mr Rupert Murdoch, the Chairman of media conglomerate News Corporation.

“The Dow Jones India Titans 30 Index includes 30 largest and most liquid stocks traded in India. The selection to the index will be based on rankings by float-adjusted market capitalisation and 12 month average daily trading volume,” the media company said.

The index will track share prices of leading players across various business segments incorporated on the index and will be a basis for investment. Calculated in US dollar and Indian rupee, it will be reviewed every March.

The index has been created by financial information company Dow Jones Indexes, a business unit of Dow Jones & Company, a News Corporation company.

Launching the index, Mr Murdoch said the blue-chip index for India will be licensed to financial institutions as the basis of investment products, such as exchange-traded funds.

“The growing importance of India to the world and to Dow Jones and News Corporation is obvious to all. What the world needs is a trusted means of measuring this country’s development and an index that can be used by investors around the world to track the progress of Indian companies and the Indian economy,” said Mr Murdoch.

“We will see huge capital flows both from and to India in coming years and that is an opportunity for us as a financial information company and for international investors who want to take advantage of this profound trend.”

Cap on weightage

Unlike other benchmark indices such as the Sensex, Nifty, Morgan Stanley India Index, the new index has 10 per cent weightage cap for individual securities.

This is illustrated by Reliance Industries that figures on the Dow Jones India Titans 30 with highest weightage of 10.80 per cent, as compared to Reliance’s weightage on Sensex of 15.96 per cent, on Monday. On NSE’s S&P CNX Nifty, Reliance enjoyed weightage of 12.51 per cent.

In the Dow Jones India Titans 30 Index, the financial sector has the highest weightage of 23.16 per cent, followed by basic materials 19.81 per cent, oil and gas 13.99 per cent — as on July 31, when it was made public for the first time.

Top 10 companies represented on this index are Reliance Industries, Infosys Technologies, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, ITC, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, DLF and Reliance Communication.

Morgan Stanley Capital International India index is another widely referred index of top Indian companies from the leading US based financial firm Morgan Stanley.

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