Lagos — United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has been selected as one of the few securities from 19 African Stock Exchanges included in the FTSE African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) Pan African Index.

The FTSE ASEA Pan African Index which was created in December 2012 is a free float market capitalization weighted series constructed from securities domiciled on African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) member Stock Exchanges and therefore represents the performance of eligible securities listed on these Exchanges. This index series was designed after extensive market consultation to meet the needs of African investors and as the foundation of new tradable investment products.

According to Abiola Rasaq, an Equity Research Analyst at UBA Capital Research, the selection of UBA stems from the liquidity and tradability of its stock as demonstrated over the years. "The purpose of the index is to measure the performance of eligible securities for African equity portfolios," Rasaq said. "The FTSE ASEA index is a welcome development as it provides a good benchmark for African Focused Fund, which currently uses the Morgan Stanley Composite Index Emerging/Frontier Market Index as proxy for benchmark return. Interestingly, the FTSE ASEA covers stocks on 19 of the 21 African bourses, thus can be seen to be truly representative of the African basket," he concluded.

The Index is designed to ensure sufficient liquidity in their underlying stocks, to match the requirements of the users. Specific liquidity rules were applied in order to increase the tradability of the index by removing companies that are difficult to buy or sell. Reviews are carried out on an annual basis and the index is rebalanced twice a year in June and December.

United Bank for Africa Plc is one of Africa's leading financial institutions offering universal banking to more than 7 million customer accounts across Africa and key financial centers.