December 20, 2006	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 28, 1427

LONDON, Dec 19: Standard and Poor’s, the international ratings agency, launched on Tuesday Shariah-compliant versions of its widely used global indices.

“The new indices — the S and P 500 Shariah, S and P Europe 350 Shariah and S and P Japan 500 Shariah — have been created by screening stocks in the parent indices for compliance with Shariah law,” a statement said.

“The Shariah versions of the indices are designed to be closely correlated with the underlying index and provide investors with a comparable investment portfolio,” it added.

The vice president of Standard and Poor’s Index Services, Alka Banerjee, said that the potential growth in global Shariah-related investing was “enormous”, but had been held back by a lack of globally accepted benchmarks and other tailored investment tools.—AFP