The LSE Directory / Index providers
Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited compiles, calculates and publishes the Hang Seng Index (HSI), the benchmark gauge of the Hong Kong stock market, along with a broader Hang Seng Family of Indexes that as of 2024 covered the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (H shares), the Hang Seng TECH Index (launched 27 July 2020, tracking the 30 largest Hong Kong listed technology companies), Stock Connect and Greater Bay Area indexes, sustainability indexes, and fixed income indexes. The HSI itself is a free float adjusted, market capitalisation weighted index; Wikipedia records it at 88 constituent companies representing roughly 58 percent of Hong Kong Stock Exchange capitalisation, and the company has been progressively widening the index toward a target of 100 constituents. The firm specialises in benchmark and licensing services rather than fund management: it designs and maintains index methodologies, then licenses the resulting indexes to asset managers, exchanges and banks that build ETFs, futures, options and structured products on top of them. This licensing model, similar in structure to S&P Dow Jones Indices or MSCI but scoped almost entirely to Hong Kong and Greater China equities, differentiates it from broad global index providers: its competitive position rests on the HSI's decades long status as the default reference for Hong Kong equity performance rather than on breadth across geographies or asset classes. The Hang Seng Index was conceived by Hang Seng Bank founding chairman Ho Sin Hang and developed by the bank's head of research, Stanley Kwan, with a base value of 100 set at the market close on 31 July 1964; it was first published publicly on 24 November 1969. Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited, the corporate entity that now compiles and administers the index, was established in 1984 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Hang Seng Bank, which is itself majority owned by HSBC Holdings plc. Anita Mo, who joined Hang Seng Indexes in 1997, has served as chief executive officer since September 2020. A PR Newswire release marking the HSI's 55th anniversary in October 2024 put assets under management in products passively tracking the Hang Seng Family of Indexes at approximately USD 78.5 billion, about USD 25 billion of that tracking the HSI alone, spread across 15 exchange traded products listed in 36 markets; four constituents, CLP Holdings, The Hong Kong and China Gas Company, HSBC Holdings and Power Assets Holdings, have held their place in the index since its 1969 launch. The company has continued to extend the index family into thematic and sustainability products, including the VHSI volatility index modelled on the CBOE VIX, the Hang Seng SCHK New Economy Index, and ESG rated indexes assessed under its own corporate sustainability rating model published on its website.
