KULA LUMPUR, March 16, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Leading global index provider Dow Jones has announced that it will expand its Islamic market series by adding the Dow Jones-RHB Islamic Malaysia Index.

The new index, scheduled to be launched in June, will be developed jointly by Dow Jones Indexes and the Malaysian RHB Research Institute, Malaysia’s Bernama news agency reported on Wedneday, March 16.

The indexes track Shari`ah compliant stocks from around the world, providing Islamic investors with comprehensive tools based on a truly global investing perspective.

Excluded from these indexes are stocks that represent the following lines of business: alcohol, tobacco, pork-related products, weapons and entertainment.

The new Islamic index will replace the existing RHB Islamic Index, the first Malaysian Islamic index established in May 1996.

An established licensed investment adviser in Malaysia with a proven track record in equities research, RHB Research Institute is part of RHB Capital Group, a major financial-services group in Malaysia that provides both conventional and Islamic financial products and services in other countries like Singapore, Thailand and Brunei.

The Malaysian index is, in effect, targeting Muslim investors and helps stop the flight of capital from Muslim countries to the West, Dow Jones Islamic Index Group's global director Rushdi Siddiqui told Bernama.

“This initiative will spur stocks exchanges in Muslim countries to create indexes of (Shari`ah)-compliant companies,” Siddiqui said.

The new Islamic index will attract portfolio funds from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, he added.

“There is a mountain of liquidity available in the GCC market. One of the better investment options available will be Malaysia,” he said.

Siddiqui noted that the index will initially have 60 leading equities, which will be selected from 750 Shari`ah-compliant companies listed on Bursa Malaysia, the country’s official capital market.

Siddiqui further revealed that Dow Jones was working with a business group to launch an Islamic equity index for Saudi Arabia.