Standard & Poor's to Launch S&P/Harel Sector Indices on the Israeli Equity Market

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, and Harel Financial Group ("Harel") announced today that Standard & Poor's has launched a suite of sector indices covering a broad range of companies within the Israeli equity market. The S&P/Harel Sector Indices will provide investors with a benchmark for measuring sector performance within the Israeli equity market, and will serve as the basis for investment products.

The S&P/Harel Sector Indices are launched as part of a collaboration agreement entered by the two companies whereby S&P launches new sector indices for the Israeli market and Harel issues investment products which track the new Indices.

On February 23rd, 2011, Harel will issue two investment products which track the following indices:  

• S&P/ Harel TA Energy Index
• S&P/ Harel TA Telecommunication Index

"With the launch of these Indices, Israeli investors will have access to S&P Indices full range of indexing capabilities essential to both measuring asset classes and for serving as the basis for investment products," says Alka Banerjee, Vice President at S&P Indices. "Our full expectation is that these Indices will be the first of a family of indices serving both Israeli investors and those from outside of Israel looking to access this market."

Standard & Poor's has been publishing, calculating and producing indices for over 85 years. Its family of indices covers a wide range of the world's asset classes from equities and fixed income to commodities and real-estate. Approximately, $4.83 trillion is directly benchmarked to Standard & Poor's indices.

Each index within the S&P/Harel Sector Indices is made up of 12, 15, 20 or 25 of the largest eligible publicly traded Israeli companies listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) within industry sectors and sub-industries as defined by GICS®, the Global Industry Classification Standard. There are currently 2 indices comprising the suite of S&P/Harel Sector Indices: S&P/Harel TA Energy Index, and S&P/ Harel TA Telecommunications Index.

"We are very excited to bring our world renowned index capabilities to Israel," says Dorit Salingar, Head of Standard & Poor's in Israel. "Standard & Poor's indices are designed to the highest global standards and will help the globalization of Israel's financial markets, increasing transparency and sophistication of the local market. This is yet another stage in Standard & Poor's expansion of its operations in Israel, bringing state-of-the-art products and services to Israeli investors and financial institutions, as well as to global investors."

For more information about the S&P/Harel Sector Indices, please visit: www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

About S&P Indices

S&P Indices, the world's leading index provider, maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array of investor needs. Over $1.25 trillion is directly indexed to Standard & Poor's family of indices, which includes the S&P 500, the world's most followed stock market index, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, the S&P Global BMI, an index with approximately 11,000 constituents, the S&P GSCI, the industry's most closely watched commodities index, and the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index, the premier investable index for U.S. municipal bonds. For more information, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

About Harel Financial Group

Harel Financial Group is the financial arm of Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd. The Company's diversified operations include provident fund and portfolio management, ETFs, microeconomic and macroeconomic research and equities.

Standard & Poor's does not sponsor, endorse, sell or promote any investment fund or other vehicle that is offered by third parties and that seeks to provide an investment return based on the returns of any Standard & Poor's index. A decision to invest in any such investment fund or other vehicle should not be made in reliance on any of the statements set forth in this presentation. Prospective investors are advised to make an investment in any such fund or vehicle only after carefully considering the risks associated with investing in such funds, as detailed in an offering memorandum or similar document that is prepared by or on behalf of the issuer of the investment fund or vehicle.. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.

SOURCE Standard & Poor's