Financial portal Sponser is launching a new index of biomedical companies listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). The index will include the 15 largest companies in the industry, and will be updated every six months.
The current members of the index are:
The TASE had considered developing such an index, which would also serve as a tool for developing financial instruments, such as exchange traded funds, but decided against the idea. TASE VP Ronit Harel Ben-Zeev told "Globes" that the biomed index was not established because there were not enough companies with a high enough value to create a balanced and significant index.
The Sponser biomed index will mainly be used for information, although a legal review is underway to see if it can be a basis for ETFs. Currently, the TASE is the only legal authority authorized in Israel to create indices on which ETFs can be marketed.
The Sponser biomed index will be calculated retroactively to January 2008, on the basis of this baseline, it had a negative return of 68% in 2008, and a positive return of 270% so far in 2009.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 24, 2009
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