EUROPE- Dow Jones is launching a further seven European Country Titan indices today. Henceforth, blue-chip indices for France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands are available through the major data vendors as well as the Dow Jones index website www.djindexes.com

The new country titans will comprise 30 of each country’s largest and most liquid stocks and represent between 48% and 68% of their respective market capitalisation. Dow Jones has set a weightings cap of 10% to prevent individual stocks from dominating an index.

Each new index is calculated in US dollars and local currency. Full details of components, current weightings and free-float market capitalisation is available on the Dow Jones website.

Dow Jones says the indices are being launched in response to growth in the exchange traded fund business, now worth €6.8bn in Europe. Dow Jones expects to see new ETFs launched on some of the new indices later this year.