The Markets January 30, 2008

Shariah Compliant Index Series Launched

FTSE Group, a global index company, and Yasaar Research on Wednesday launched the FTSE Shariah Global Equity Index Series.
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The launch of the 96 new Shariah compliant indexes, 12 of which are calculated in real time, includes the FTSE Shariah Developed Index Series, the FTSE Shariah Emerging Index Series, the FTSE Shariah All-World Index Series, and FTSE Shariah Multinationals 150 Index.

The FTSE Shariah Global Equity Index Series uses asset-based debt screening, a more conservative approach to Shariah compliance to ensure that companies do not pass the screening criteria due to marketplace fluctuation. This allows the methodology to be less speculative and more in keeping with Shariah principles, the company said.

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The FTSE Shariah Global Equity Index Series comprises the Large and Mid Cap stocks from the FTSE Global Equity Index Series and has been designed to be used as the basis of Shariah compliant investment products that meet the requirements of Islamic investors globally.

“The growth of the Islamic market is such that the investors have come to demand an availability of choices. The FTSE Shariah index series serve those growing demands in a transparent, timely and Shariah compliant manner, enabling the creation of products based on these indices which will give greater beneficial choice and thereby engender the Islamic finance industry generally,” said Majid Dawood, CEO of Yasaar Limited and President of Yasaar Research Inc, in a company announcement.

More information can be found at www.ftse.com.

Products January 30, 2008

Claymore Launches China Small Cap ETF

Claymore Securities, Inc. announced the launch of the Claymore/AlphaShares China Small Cap Index exchange-traded fund (ticker: HAO) on the American Stock Exchange.
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The ETF is the first ETF focused on small cap Chinese companies, the company said. The Index is designed to measure and monitor the performance of publicly-traded mainland China-based small capitalization companies.

Claymore/AlphaShares China Small Cap Index ETF seeks investment results that correspond generally to the performance, before the fund’s fees and expenses, of an equity index called the AlphaShares China Small Cap Index. The Fund will normally invest at least 90% of its total assets in common stock, American depositary receipts, American depositary shares, global depositary receipts, and international depositary receipts that comprise the Index.

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The Index is rebalanced and reconstituted annually.

“Gaining exposure to Chinese small caps can be difficult because most other Chinese investment products are market-cap based. In those ETFs, small caps represent only a small percentage of assets at best and in the most widely held Chinese ETF, small caps currently have no representation,’ said Christian Magoon, Senior Managing Director and Head of the ETF Group for Claymore Securities, in the announcement. “But with the introduction of HAO, investors now have the opportunity to diversify among existing Chinese investments through exposure to small cap companies.’

The Index is maintained by Standard & Poor’s and is published on the AlphaShares Web site at www.alphashares.com.

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