Investable and benchmark indices provider S&P Dow Jones Indices (SPDJI) on Tuesday launched 14 new equity indices in 13 African markets providing investors with a comprehensive offering of indices measuring the performance of African equity markets.
The launch of these new indices formed part of SPDJI’s continued expansion in Africa, which already saw the launch of 29 new indices this year.
“SPDJI has a long history of providing relevant benchmarks to African investors. Continuing with this year’s launch of 15 South Africa indices and now strengthened with today’s extensive offering of over a dozen new regional African indices, SPDJI now offers investors a comprehensive suite of benchmark and tradable equity indices covering the African continent,” SPDJI CEO Alexander Matturri said.
The headline index launched on Tuesday was the S&P All Africa, a comprehensive benchmark for the African continent combining the constituents of the S&P Pan Africa, the S&P South African Composite, the S&P Zimbabwe broad market index and developed market listed companies that operated purely in, or derived a majority of their revenues from, Africa.
The S&P All Africa served as the basis for numerous subindice, including regional benchmark and tradable indices, covering different segments of the continental equity market, SPDJI said.
The other 13 indices launched included the S&P All Africa ex-South Africa that was designed to serve as a comprehensive benchmark for the African market excluding South Africa, the S&P All Africa Capped, which modified the S&P All Africa by limiting the weights of individual countries, sectors and companies, and the S&P All Africa ex-South Africa Capped, which was a modification of the S&P All Africa ex-South Africa.
SPDJI also launched the S&P East Africa, S&P North Africa, S&P Southern Africa ex-South Africa and S&P West Africa, which were designed to serve these specific regions, as well as the S&P All Africa ex-South Africa Select that was designed to be a replicable index measuring the performance of the largest, most liquid companies listed in Africa outside of South Africa as well as companies listed in developed markets that derived the majority of their revenues from Africa.
Further, the S&P East Africa 10, consisting of ten of the largest and most liquid companies listed in Kenya, the S&P North Africa 15, consisting of 15 of the largest and most liquid companies listed in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, the S&P Southern Africa ex-South Africa 10, consisting of ten of the largest and most liquid companies listed in Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the S&P West Africa 25, which consisted of 25 of the largest and most liquid companies listed in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria, were also launched by SPDJI.