ASE launches new index on Tuesday

AMMAN — The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) will launch its new index the ASE20 index at the beginning of next month, according to a statement from the ASE website. 

In the statement, ASE’s Chief Executive Officer, Mazen Al Wathaifi, said the ASE20 index is a weighted index, based on the market capitalisation for the free float shares available for trading. 

It is composed of 20 listed companies that are most active and reliable in terms of market capitalisation, which are the leading companies in the ASE, he added. 

The full market capitalisation of the index constituents represents 77.6 per cent of the total market capitalisation of the companies listed by the ASE while the free float market capitalisation of these companies is 82.2 per cent of the total free float market capitalisation of the ASE-listed companies, he noted. A base value of 1000 points at the end of 2014 was stipulated for the ASE20 index.

Moreover, the sample of the ASE20 index will be reviewed quarterly, at the end of March, June, September and December of each year. This review also includes the calculation of the free float of all listed companies, based on the data received by the Securities Depository Center (SDC). In addition, the factor value is reduced for any company that weighs more than 10 per cent of the market capitalisation of index, according to the statement.

Al Wathaifi underscored the importance of the diversity of indices in the markets to give a more accurate picture of the prices’ movements for different categories of stocks and the market’s direction.