KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 12): Thomson Reuters today announced the launch of its Islamic Asia Pacific Ex-Japan Islamic Agribusiness Index, covering 30 Shariah-compliant companies in the Asia-Pacific region with revenues derived directly from agricultural products.

The Islamic Asia Pacific Ex-Japan Agribusiness Index is the first index of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region. It will be tracked by the world's first agriculture-related Islamic exchange-traded fund (ETF) provided by Malaysia's i-VCAP Management Sdn Bhd, offering investors exposure to the index, said Thomson Reuters in a statement today.

The ETF is launched today and is named MyETF Thomson Reuters Asia Pacific ex-Japan Islamic Agribusiness.

The newly-launched ETF will offer investors exposure to the performance of the index and is the first agricultural-related Islamic ETF available globally and the first Islamic sector ETF available in the region, adding to ETFs worth US$2 billion (RM8.71 billion) based on Thomson Reuters indices globally.

The Index combines Thomson Reuters' transparent rules-based methodology with IdealRatings' expertise and research-based approach to Shariah-compliant screening.

In addition, the index uses Thomson Reuters Business Classification (TRBC) to select companies engaged in upstream agricultural activities. TRBC has five levels of classification enabling a more accurate and granular selection of companies.

This allows Thomson Reuters to systematically include industries and business activities that derive revenue from agricultural produce, such as dairy producers or fertiliser, while excluding activities related to agricultural product manufacturing, which are not considered to be part of the agribusiness sector, it explained.

Thomson Reuters said that it has been at the heart of Islamic finance for over 30 years, offering innovative Shariah-compliant investment and trading solutions for financial professionals. Its unrivalled data and content sets have helped investors make better decision faster.

"Thomson Reuters is delighted to add the Islamic Asia Pacific Ex-Japan Agribusiness Index to our suite of Islamic indices," said Thomson Reuters head of indices Stephan Flagel.

"The index provides rules-based, liquid and transparent exposure to companies within the fast growing Asian Agribusiness sector. Bringing the efficiency and transparency expected in advanced financial markets to the rapidly growing Islamic finance industry requires the provision of deep and reliable market indicators, benchmarks and terms and conditions," he added.

The Thomson Reuters Islamic Asia Pacific Ex-Japan Agribusiness Index is calculated in real time and will be available through Thomson Reuters Eikon. Thomson Reuters is a trusted, global provider of indices and index services, calculating over 10,000 different equity, fixed income and commodity indices.