STOXX Ltd., the European index provider, has launched the Dow Jones STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index.
The Dow Jones STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index is the first global index that measures the performance of high-dividend yielding stocks worldwide. It tracks the 40 highest dividend-yielding stocks in the Americas as well as the 30 highest dividend-yielding stocks in Europe and in Asia/Pacific, respectively.
The index is designed to underlie financial products and has already been licensed to serve as an underlying for an ETF, which is scheduled to be launched in the second quarter of 2007.
“The Dow Jones STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index is a new member of our unique and highly successful select dividend indexes family, weighted by dividend yield instead of market capitalisation,” says Lars Hamich, the managing director of STOXX Ltd. “This index enables investors to track high-dividend paying companies on a worldwide level and is the logical expansion of the Dow Jones and Dow Jones STOXX Select Dividend index series, which tracks all the major national and regional financial markets.”
To be eligible for inclusion in the Dow Jones STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index, a company must have a positive historical five-year dividend-per-share growth rate and a dividend-to-earnings-per-share ratio of less than or equal to 60 percent in Europe and the Americas, 80 percent in Asia/Pacific the current year, or be a previous component.