STOXX Limited has introduced the STOXX Global Index family, more than 1,200 indices covering the global equity markets. Effective Monday 21 February, a new index classification system will also be used to further define the different levels of index services offered by STOXX.
STOXX has also introduced a new corporate design that visually reinforces these changes and reflects the firm’s prominence as a leading global index provider.
"The launch of the STOXX Global Index family and new corporate design marks the next era for STOXX as we continue expanding our global business. The differentiating factor in our new global index series compared to its peers is that it includes both traditional equity indices as well as strategy indices designed for more sophisticated investment approaches," says Hartmut Graf, chief executive officer, STOXX Limited. "Our goal is really to offer our clients the greatest possible choice and flexibility. To that end, we introduced four different levels of STOXX index classification to further enhance our customer focus and aspiration to bring transparency to the index market."
The STOXX Global Index family consists of total market, broad and blue-chip indices for the regions Americas, Europe, Asia, and Pacific, and sub-regions Latin America and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), as well as global markets. Furthermore, all broad regional indices can also be broken down into a comprehensive set of supersector indices that follow the Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB). Blue-chip indices are also available for individual countries.
To complement the new global index family, a set of innovative strategy indices will be launched for all regional and country blue-chip indices, including risk control indices, and several short and leverage indices.
The STOXX Global TMI is the index universe for all other indices in this family, and covers more than 95% of the world’s free-float market capitalisation. The new index family follows the transparent and reliable STOXX index methodology, which has been applied to other successful benchmarks such as the STOXX Europe 600 Index. All indices are weighted by float-adjusted market capitalisation and are available in price, net and gross return version in euro and US dollar. The component weightings of blue-chip indices are capped at 10% of the respective index’s total free-float market capitalisation.
The full list of indices in the STOXX Global Index family is included at the end of this release. More indices will be added to the STOXX Global Index family by the end of 2011 to add further standardised and innovative concepts to the index range.
STOXX is also introducing a new classification system based on four categories of index offerings. The system aims to provide market participants with optimal transparency and easy allocation for a rapidly growing product range. The first category STOXX includes all standard equity benchmark and blue-chip indices, such as the new STOXX Global Index family, the EURO STOXX 50, STOXX Europe 50 or STOXX Europe 600 indices. All indices that replicate investment strategies and themes, but still follow STOXX’s strict rules-based methodologies, will be categorised as STOXX+. Indices that fall into this category include the STOXX Optimised and STOXX Strategy indices. The iSTOXX brand will comprise less standardised index concepts that take into account individual customer and market requirements but are still completely rules-based. The final category, STOXX Customizsed, covers indices that are specifically developed for our clients and are not STOXX branded.
