Mumbai: Standard & Poor''s has launched a fully investable S&P Pan Asia Shariah Index, the latest addition to the S&P Global Shariah Index Series. The index includes 11 index heavyweight Indian companies including Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bharti Tele Ventures, Infosys Technologies, and Reliance Industries among others.

The new index draws stocks from nine Asian markets in the S&P Citigroup Global Equity Index and will enable Islamic investors to benchmark their investment on a regional basis.

Apart from the 11 Indian companies, 12 companies are listed from Taiwan, 9 from China, 8 each from Singapore and Korea, 7 each from Hong Kong and Malaysia, 4 each from Indonesia and Thailand and one from the Philippines.

The S&P Pan Asia Shariah Index has been launched with 71 companies with an adjusted market capitalisation of $810.83 billion.

Company Information technology companies represent approximately 35 per cent of the index, followed by telecom services (17 per cent) and energy (15 per cent).

The number of stocks, for Shariah screening purposes, has been limited to the top 15 from each country that have a market capitalisation of at least $1 billion.