LONDON, June 26 /PRNewswire/ — Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, announced today the launch of a fully investable S&P Pan Asia Shariah Index, the latest addition to the S&P Global Shariah Index Series.

The new index, which draws stocks from nine Asian markets in the S&P Citigroup Global Equity Index, will enable Islamic investors to benchmark their investment on a regional basis, and give product providers the opportunity to develop structured products tailored to the Islamic market. The countries eligible for inclusion are China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Australia, Japan and New Zealand are excluded.

"We are delighted to be able to offer a fully-investable Pan-Asian Shariah compliant index," says Alka Banerjee, Vice President of Standard & Poor's Index Services. "The launch builds upon the success of our other indices launched during the past six months as part of the S&P Global Shariah Index Series. Standard & Poor's approach is to create meaningful, product-based indices that give Islamic investors exposure to the same headline markets that conventional investors have enjoyed for years. The feedback from clients has been very positive, with the indices being used as the basis for new Shariah- compliant mutual funds and structured products."

The number of stocks, for Shariah screening purposes, is limited to the top 15 from each country that have a market capitalization of at least US$1 billion. Each month a universe of stocks conforming to these criteria, selected once a year on 31 March, is screened for Shariah compliance to form this index.

The S&P Pan Asia Shariah Index has been launched with 71 companies with an adjusted market capitalization of US$810.83 billion. Information technology companies represent approximately 35% of the index, followed by telecom services (17%) and energy (15%).

The S&P Global Shariah Index Series already offers Shariah-compliant versions of Standard & Poor's widely used global indices -- the S&P 500, the S&P Europe 350 and the S&P Japan 500 -- as well as the S&P GCC Middle East Shariah Index Series and the S&P BRIC Shariah Index.

All S&P Shariah Indices are screened by Ratings Intelligence Partners, a Kuwait-based consulting company specialising in the Islamic investment market. Ratings Intelligence Partners researchers interface directly with a dedicated Shariah Supervisory Board. The Board is comprised of a group of Islamic scholars whose role is to interpret business issues as well as financial practices and recommend actions in relation to Shariah index management.

S&P Shariah Indices exclude businesses that offer products and services which are considered unacceptable or non-compliant according to Shariah-law, such as advertising and media (newspapers are allowed, sub-industries are analyzed individually), alcohol, financials, gambling, pork, pornography, tobacco, and the trading of gold and silver as cash on a deferred basis. All S&P Shariah Index constituents are monitored on a daily basis to ensure that the indices maintain strict Shariah compliance.

For more information on the S&P Shariah Indices, including methodology, please visit: http://www.globalindices.standardandpoors.com/.

About Standard & Poor's Index Services

Standard & Poor's Index Services, the world's leading index provider, maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array of investor needs. Its family of indices includes the S&P 500, an index with $1.3 trillion invested and $4.8 trillion benchmarked, and the S&P Global 1200, a composite index comprised of seven regional and country headline indices. For more information, please visit http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

About Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP) , is the world's foremost provider of financial market intelligence, including independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With approximately 8,500 employees, including wholly owned affiliates, located in 21 countries, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for more than 140 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com/.

CONTACT:

David R. Guarino
Communications
Standard & Poor's
+1-212-438-1471
dave_guarino@standardandpoors.com

Mark Tierney-Matthew McAdam
Communications
Standard & Poor's
+44-207-176-3504
mark_tierney@standardandpoors.com