MUMBAI, India and NEW YORK, Feb. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- BSE and S&P Dow Jones Indices announced today a strategic partnership to calculate, disseminate, and license the widely followed suite of BSE indices. The partnership brings together BSE's closely watched India index suite, which includes the SENSEX, with S&P Dow Jones Indices' 115 years of experience in publishing uncompromised global benchmarks. 

The BSE, the oldest exchange in Asia established in 1875, 137 years ago, currently maintains 30 stock market indices measuring the Indian market. The SENSEX is the flagship index of BSE launched in 1986 on a market-cap weighted basis to measure the performance of 30 component stocks representing large, well-established, and financially sound companies across key sectors in India. The Index is one of the most prominent brands among Indian investors.

The partnership allows S&P Dow Jones Indices to further implement its South Asia growth strategy. It also permits S&P Dow Jones Indices to have a fourth major operational hub by which to support clients globally, with major operations in Hong Kong, London, New York, and now India. Over USD $1.5 trillion is directly indexed to S&P Dow Jones Indices' family of stock market indices as of Dec. 31, 2011.

"We expect our partnership with S&P Dow Jones Indices will help BSE raise the growing global acceptance of the SENSEX and other BSE index benchmarks, and help BSE achieve a leadership position in the index derivatives space," says Ashish Chauhan, MD and CEO of BSE.  "We are also very excited about the potential to build an India-based international business together than can achieve much greater scale and efficiency in serving our joint customers globally."

"This partnership fortifies and expands BSE and S&P Dow Jones Indices' presence in India and in South Asia, while providing a springboard for our efforts in the ASEAN region with an important exchange partner that understands this critical segment of the market," says Alexander Matturri, Chief Executive Officer of S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Coupling the BSE's strong knowledge of the Indian market and investor interests with S&P Dow Jones Indices' uncompromised history of providing leading stock market indices, the new partnership will immediately provide Indian and international investors with the index solutions and insight they need to make well-informed investment decisions."

Effective today, each of the BSE indices will be co-branded "S&P" including the SENSEX, BSE 200 and BSE 100. These indices will join S&P Dow Jones Indices' other iconic financial market indicators such as the S&P 500®, the Dow Jones Industrial Average®, the S&P/TSX 60, and the S&P/ASX 200 in providing global investors with must-have views of the overall health and direction of the world's financial markets.

To learn more about the BSE, please visit:  www.bseindia.com. To learn more about S&P Dow Jones Indices, please visit: www.spdji.com. 

ABOUT BSE:
BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd.) - Established in 1875, 137 years ago, BSE Ltd. (formerly known as Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd.), is Asia's first Stock Exchange and one of India's leading exchange groups and has played a prominent role in developing the Indian capital market. BSE is a corporatized and demutualised entity, with a broad shareholder-base which includes two leading global exchanges, Deutsche Bourse and Singapore Exchange as strategic partners. BSE provides an efficient and transparent market for trading in equity, debt instruments, derivatives, mutual funds. It also has a platform for trading in equities of small-and-medium enterprises (SME). BSE also provides a host of other services to capital market participants including risk management, clearing, settlement, market data services and education. It has a global reach with customers around the world and a nation-wide presence. BSE systems and processes are designed to safeguard market integrity, drive the growth of the Indian capital market and stimulate innovation and competition across all market segments. It operates one of the most respected capital market educational institutes in the country (the BSE Institute Ltd.). BSE also provides depository services through its Central Depository Services Ltd. (CDSL) arm.

About S&P Dow Jones Indices
S&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