Alibaba Unit Launches E-commerce Based Stock Index In China

Ant Financial Services Group, a financial affiliate of Alibaba Group Holdings , launched Thursday an index that tracks mainland-China-listed stocks based on their e-commerce activities, the company announced Thursday on its Weibo microblogging account. The CSI Taojin Big Data 100 Index is comprised of 100 stocks selected from industries like household durables, leisure equipment and products, textiles and apparel, according to a report by state-run China News Service on Thursday. The selection of the stocks is based on data from Ant Financial's online platform about those industries' price levels, supply and demand conditions, and online transactions, the report added. The index gauges firms' performance by "timely quantitative online payment and transaction data", instead of "quarterly earnings", so investors will get accurate and up-to-date information, a Reuters report quoted from a statement by Ant Financial as saying.