Standard & Poor’s has launched its S&P Asia Thematic Index Series, comprised of three new investable indices for Asian equity markets based on specialist investment themes.

The S&P Asia Infrastructure Index, S&P Asia Water Index and S&P Asia Alternative Energy Index will provide investors with diversified exposure to leading publicly listed companies operating within these themes across seven developed and emerging Asian markets, according to the company.

The indices have been designed to be highly liquid and investable, and can therefore be more easily developed into structured products and exchange traded funds.

Each index relies on a selection and modified market capitalisation-weighting scheme to provide a balanced representation across the clusters within each index. Companies must have a total market capitalization above $250 million and a three-month average daily value traded of at least $3 million.

No single stock can account for more than 10 per cent of the index and each stock’s domicile and primary market listing must be an Asian market.