The company which operates the Dow Jones economic indices has created a separate index to track Internet-related stocks.
The Dow Jones & Company yesterday announced the Dow Jones Internet Index (DJII), a benchmark initially consisting of 40 stocks which will measure performance of US Internet stocks, said Jeremy Zweig, spokesman for Dow Jones.
DJII "seeks to represent 80 per cent of Internet stock market capitalisation and at this point 40 companies achieve that," Zweig said. Those figures will be reviewed quarterly, as will the stocks which will make up DJII, he said.
According to Zweig, DJII will consist of two sub-indices, one for Internet commerce stocks and one for Internet services stocks. To be listed, a company must generate a minimum of 50 per cent of its revenue from the Internet, have a three-month average market cap of at least $US100 million as well asa three-month average closing price above $10, and have enough trading activity to pass liquidity tests, he said.
So far, the Internet commerce index has 15 stocks, which range alphabetically from Amazon.com to Yahoo, and the Internet services index is composed of 25 companies, including America Online, Cybercash and Netscape Communications, Zweig said.