More Bangladeshi cos added to Dow Jones indexes

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Kayes M Sohel
Six companies from Bangladesh have been added to the Dow Jones indexes, a leading global index provider, promoting the country as a lucrative investment destination for potential investors.
The six companies are Uttara Bank Ltd, Pubali Bank Ltd, AB Bank Ltd, National Bank Ltd, Power Grid Co. of Bangladesh Ltd and Prime Bank Ltd.
Dow Jones Indexes Friday last announced the results of the regular annual review of the Dow Jones SAFE Indexes, according to the Wall Street Journal, a sister concern of Dow Jones.
"Changes to the composition of the Dow Jones SAFE 100 Index will be effective after the close of trading on March 20, 2009," says the Journal.
The Dow Jones SAFE 100 Index, a unified regional index, was introduced at the annual general meeting of South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE) held in Abu Dhabi on March 10-11.
The index measures the performance of 100 blue-chip companies in five of the eight member states of the SAFE.
The five member states included in the index are: India, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
"It is good news for the country's stock market. The companies have fulfilled the criteria set by the Dow Jones to join the prestigious index," said Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, professor of finance department of the Dhaka University.
"It will also send a positive signal to both the local and foreign investors," Khan, also former chief executive officer of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), said adding that the index, by providing an overview of the performance of the SAFE equity markets as a regional group, would highlight its investment potentials.
The index measures the performance of the 50 largest Indian stocks, six Bangladeshi, eight Mauritian, 35 Pakistani and one Sri Lankan stocks.
Initially, three companies of Bangladesh qualified for Dow Jones SAFE 100 Index.
"Later, three more companies were selected for being added to the index deleting three companies from Pakistan because recently the Pakistani stock market witnessed massive downslide due to lawyers' movement," said Maksudur Rahman, manager of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE).
This is the first time an index has been created to measure the performance of blue-chip companies in five of the eight member states of SAFE, he added.
Fifteen stock exchanges from eight countries are the members of SAFE that started working on launching the index in 2006 and eventually signed a partnership agreement with the Dow Jones later.
Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes after launching the index earlier said it would provide accurate, transparent and reliable performance measures of leading companies in this region.
"South Asia is home to some of the most rapidly evolving financial markets worldwide. By further developing securities markets and aiming at their regional and international integration the SAFE has been contributing significantly to these developments," he said.
Aftab Ahmad Chowdhury, managing director and CEO of Islamabad Stock Exchange and secretary general SAFE had said, "The index showcases the region as one asset class and can thank to its superior methodology being used as an underlying tool for investment products on national and international level alike."
The SAFE 100 index is calculated in US dollars and it is weighted by float-adjusted market capitalisation. The weighing of each country in the index is capped at 50 per cent, each component is capped at 10 per cent subsequently.