S&P Dow Jones Indices has launched the Dow Jones Sustainability South Africa Composite Diversified Index, which is part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Diversified family of indices (DJSI Diversified).

The Index is designed to measure the South African equity markets, offering investors a risk and performance benchmark similar to the S&P South Africa Composite, but with a tilt toward sustainability investing criteria.

The Index methodology selects the best-in-class 33% of the market capitalization of each GICSâ (Global Industry Classification Standard) sector in the S&P South Africa Composite based on the Corporate Sustainability Assessment scores assigned by RobecoSAM.

Guido Giese, Head of Indices, RobecoSAM, said: “The new index is another step in expanding our index offering and promote Sustainability Investing (SI) globally. SI is the fastest growing segment in the financial world and now comes to South Africa.”

The DJSI Diversified family is maintained collaboratively by S&P Dow Jones Indices and RobecoSAM.
Under the diversified approach, the most sustainable companies from the global or regional S&P BMI universe are selected while ensuring that the resulting sustainability index has minimal country, sector or size biases relative to its reference S&P BMI benchmark.

Julia Kochetygova, Head of Sustainability Indices, S&P Dow Jones Indices, said: “We are extremely proud to expand the DJSI Diversified family by creating a standalone country version of the index for South Africa.”

“We believe that the Dow Jones Sustainability South Africa Composite Diversified Index will be an instrumental tool for investors in South Africa who want to measure the performance of companies with a stronger sustainability profile, especially at a time when sustainability strategies are gaining momentum amongst the investor community,” she said.