S&P DJI launches GIVI in South Africa

S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) has expanded its family of factor-based indices in South Africa with the launch of the S&P GIVI South Africa Indices.

The series is the first of its kind in the South African market and has been designed to combine lower volatility with a factor-based weighting scheme that weights a stock by its calculated intrinsic value, rather than market capitalisation.

Vinit Srivastava, senior director of strategy indices at S&P DJI said that there is a growing interest in factor-based indices in the South African market and this launch adds to the firm’s line-up of such indices, which includes the Low Volatility, Dividend Aristocrats, and the headline GIVI indices.

“The S&P GIVI South Africa Indices provide an alternatively weighted approach that incorporates a low volatility strategy,” Srivastava said. “The index suite opens the door to potential product development based on the index series, and is another milestone for S&P DJI in South Africa since the company opened its local office in September 2013.”

According to S&P DJI, the S&P GIVI South Africa Indices seek to provide investors with a better risk adjusted measure to the South African equity market. The suite applies the standard GIVI methodology, which combines low volatility and intrinsic value weighting.

Under this umbrella is a cluster of four indices that provide more precise measures of market segments including the S&P GIVI South Africa Top 50; S&P GIVI South Africa Industrials; S&P GIVI South Africa Financials and S&P GIVI South Africa Resources.

S&P DJI launched the headline S&P GIVI South Africa Composite in April of this year.