Standard & Poor’s announced today the launch of three new indices designed to meet demand from Islamic investors for investable access to some of the world’s most popular investment strategies.

The three indices launched today are S&P global infrastructure shariah, S&P global healthcare shariah, and S&P/IFCI large-midcap shariah.

S&P shariah indices exclude businesses that offer products and services which are considered unacceptable or non-compliant according to shariah law, such as advertising and media (newspapers are allowed, sub-industries are analyzed individually), alcohol, financials, gambling, pork, pornography, tobacco, and the trading of gold and silver as cash on a deferred basis.

“Muslim investors around the world have growing appetite for investable sector and thematic solutions that have been screened for shariah compliance,” says Alka Banerjee, vp of index services at Standard & Poor’s.

The S&P global infrastructure shariah index is designed to provide liquid and tradable exposure to 20 companies from around the world that represent the listed infrastructure universe. The universe is drawn from the S&P global infrastructure index, and has three distinct infrastructure clusters: energy, transportation, and utilities.

The S&P global healthcare shariah index is comprised of companies in the S&P 500, S&P Europe 350, and S&P Japan 500 shariah-compliant indices sit in the GICS health care sector. As of September 30, 2007, there are 72 companies in the index with an adjusted market capitalization of US$2.1 trillion.

The S&P/IFCI large-midcap shariah index, Standard & Poor’s emerging market shariah index, currently includes stocks from the following emerging market countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey. The shariah index is a subset of the S&P/IFCI composite index, and includes 90% of the market capitalization of the parent S&P/IFCI composite index.

Also launched today are five Arab hariah country indices: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. These underlying country indices are part of the S&P/IFCG emerging market series. The stocks listed in each underlying country are individually screened for shariah compliance before inclusion in the Pan Arab shariah index.

All S&P shariah indices are screened by Ratings Intelligence Partners, a Kuwait-based consulting company specialising in the Islamic investment market.