Dow Jones U.S. Select Equal Weight REIT Index Launched By S&P Dow Jones Indices

NEW YORK, Jan. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Dow Jones Indices, the world's largest provider of financial market indices, announced today the launch of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Equal Weight REIT Index (the "Index"), which is designed to serve as a proxy for direct real estate investment by measuring the performance of publicly traded REITs and REIT-like securities. The Index launch represents an expansion of the widely recognized Dow Jones Real Estate index family.

"The launch of this Index is indicative of the investment community's growing interest in REITs," says Michael Orzano, associate director of global equity indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices.  "Equal-weighting is a logical product extension as market participants' attitudes towards REITs mature and they begin to seek more nuanced products in the asset class."

The Index is a subset of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Real Estate Securities Index. The Index constituents must be both an equity owner and operator of commercial and/or residential real estate and at least 75% of the company's total revenue must be derived from the ownership and operation of real estate assets. Businesses that are classified as Specialty under the REIT/RESI Industry Classification Hierarchy (net-lease REITs, timber REITs, railroad REITs, tower REITs, etc.) and hybrid REITs are excluded. The equal weighting scheme of the Index alters the investment characteristics of the portfolio by reducing the impact of the largest companies and increasing the impact from the smaller companies. A Canadian Dollar hedged version of the Index has been launched concurrently.  

For more information on the Dow Jones Real Estate indices, please visit: www.djindexes.com. For more information on S&P Dow Jones Indices, please visit: www.spdji.com.

About S&P Dow Jones IndicesS&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is the world's largest, global resource for index-based concepts, data and research. Home to iconic financial market indicators, such as the S&P 500 ^® and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ^SM, S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC has over 115 years of experience constructing innovative and transparent solutions that fulfill the needs of institutional and retail investors. More assets are invested in products based upon our indices than any other provider in the world. With over 830,000 indices covering a wide range of assets classes across the globe, S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC defines the way investors measure and trade the markets. To learn more about our company, please visit www.spdji.com.

Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC ("S&P"), a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC ("Dow Jones").  These trademarks have been licensed to S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones, S&P and their respective affiliates (collectively "S&P Dow Jones Indices") do not sponsor, endorse, sell, or promote any investment fund or other investment vehicle that is offered by third parties and that seeks to provide an investment return based on the performance of any index. This document does not constitute an offer of services in jurisdictions where S&P Dow Jones Indices does not have the necessary licenses. S&P Dow Jones Indices receives compensation in connection with licensing its indices to third parties.

SOURCE S&P Dow Jones Indices

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