The number of stock market indices the world over is multiplying quickly. Although the speed of growth is almost overwhelming, the new indices do add a dimension to your investment research. In fact, some of these new indices offer an opportunity for diversification through exchange-traded funds.

The partnership between New York-based Standard & Poor’s Corp. and Toronto-based TMX Group Inc. continues to develop new indices, the most recent being the S&P/TSX venture 30 index. It focuses on the most liquid largest-capitalization stocks on the S&P/TSX Venture Exchange.

The S&P/TSX venture 30 index is volatile. Back-tested to 2006 with a starting index number of 1000, it dropped as low as 238 in September 2008. The index started trading for real on March 14, 2011, with an initial price of 947.

This index has already produced an ETF. Global X S&P/TSX Venture 30 Canada ETF, sponsored by New York-based Global X Management Co. , trades on the NYSE Arca exchange. This ETF offers an avenue for diversification if your clients want a touch of speculation in their portfolios.

Another U.S.-based firm, Black-Rock Inc. , plans to create iShares Venture index ETF, which will be traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Two other recently introduced indices have not yet attracted ETF counterparts, but do identify stocks with investible characteristics and offer performance benchmarks. These are the S&P/TSX equity income index and the S&P/TSX composite dividend index.

Here is a rundown of some new indices and their performance:

> One of the most profitable additions is anything but small-cap or dividend-oriented. It is the S&P/TSX mega-cap index, which has been calculated since September 2011. In the first quarter of this year, up to the brink of the Japanese nuclear crisis, the mega-cap index gained 3%, beating both the S&P/TSX composite and the S&P/TSX 60 indices.

Over a six-month period, the mega-cap index’s price gained 11%, again besting both the S&P/TSX composite and the S&P/TSX 60 indices.The mega-cap index’s price performance also beat the S&P/TSX dividend aristocrats index’s six-month gain of 7%.

Furthermore, the mega-cap index’s indicated dividend rose by 6.5% in six months vs the 1.8% gain by the S&P/TSX composite index’s dividend and the 3% gain by the S&P/TSX 60 index.

> Superior performance has come from what may seem unlikely groups. The S&P/TSX 60 Shariah index was an unexpected benchmark winner with its 18% price increase for the 12-month period to mid-March.

That return was only narrowly beaten by the index for another unlikely sector, income trusts. Mind you, the income trust index now consists mainly of real estate investment trusts.

> The S&P/TSX 60 130/30 strategy index, which measures over- and underweighted positions relative to the S&P/TSX 60 index, has been another strong gainer, up by 15% in the most recent 12 months.

> Unweighted indices also have been winners. The S&P/TSX diversified banks equal-weight index came on strongly in the first quarter of this year, gaining 7.9% to place ahead of the S&P/TSX oil and gas equal-weight index’s 6.6%.

> The S&P/TSX clean technology index, consisting of small-caps, has trailed in the six months of its existence. Although it actually gained in that period overall, it dropped slightly in the first quarter of 2011.

For income-oriented inves-tors, the TSXV is foreign territory. As the home of mainly micro-cap and small-cap resources exploration companies, the average stock price is between 65¢ and 70¢.

Those pennies add up, though, and there is a big chunk of stocks on the TSXV with market caps above $100 million. The largest — BAM Investments Corp. — is worth more than $1 billion, in fact. This is hardly a speculative company as it’s part of the Brookfield Asset Management Inc. empire. IE