The Markets August 17, 2007

Lipper Makes Changes to Fund Rating System

Lipper, Inc. announced changes to its global Lipper Leader rating system that it says will create a more flexible and marketing friendly set of icons that better suit the marketing needs of fund companies.
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The redesign will incorporate two new visual designs for Lipper Leader iconography – number icons and check icons, announced the mutual fund research firm and subsidiary of Reuters.

One change will be to the numerical rating system; beginning in November, 1 will be used to represent the lowest-scored funds (bottom 20%) and 5 will represent the highest-scored funds (top 20%).

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The scores are both quantitative and historical based on a transparent mathematical framework, Lipper said. The firm also said the underlying methodology and matrix configuration of the rating system that evaluates whether funds suit individual investment styles and goals, such as consistent return or capital preservation, will remain unchanged.

The changes will take effect in November 2007. Lipper Leaders are updated monthly.

More information about the rating system and other Lipper products, as well as a usage guide for the new iconography, is available at http://www.lipperweb.com.

The Markets August 17, 2007

S&P Adds Three Shariah Compliant Indexes

Standard&Poor’s has launched three new Shariah-compliant indexes covering the Pan Arab region and publicly traded property companies in developed and emerging markets.
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According to an S&P press release, the S&P/Citigroup Global Property Shariah Index represents and measures the investable universe of publicly traded property companies from developed and emerging markets. It has 130 companies from 26 countries with an adjusted market cap of $231 billion. Significant countries represented include the United States (19.54%), Australia (19.19%), China (11.14%), Hong Kong (10.53%) and Japan (9.80%).

The S&P/Citigroup World Property Shariah Index is a subset of the S&P/Citigroup Global Property Shariah Index and includes property companies from the developed markets only. It has 89 companies from 16 countries with an adjusted market cap of $191 billion. Significant countries represented include the United States (23.63%), Australia (23.21%), Hong Kong (12.74%), Japan (11.85%) and France (10.59%).

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The S&P Pan Arab Shariah Index includes 129 stocks from listed companies in 11 countries – Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia (48.24%) and Kuwait (20.07%) are the two biggest country constituents, while financials (35.92%), materials (26.67%) and telecom services (19.24%) are the biggest sector constituents.

Each Shariah-compliant index uses explicit selection criteria defined by Islamic law, the press release said. All S&P Shariah Indices are screened by Ratings Intelligence Partners, a Kuwait-based consulting company specializing in the Islamic investment market. Ratings Intelligence Partners researchers interface directly with a dedicated Shariah Supervisory Board.

The S&P Global Shariah Index Series, introduced in April, so far includes Shariah-compliant versions of 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, the S&P BRIC Shariah Index S&P, and the Pan Asia Shariah Index.

More information can be found at www.globalindices.standardandpoors.com.

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