Alibaba to launch ‘Big Data’ stock market index

The Alibaba Group will this week launch a stock market index based on its proprietary data.

The launch highlights the potential for technology firms to diversify into asset management as well as the drive towards the use of “big data”– analysis of large amounts of information from previously inaccessible sources – in investment decisions.

Ant Financial, the parent company of Alibaba’s Alipay online payment platform, and Gildata, another firm controlled by Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, are due to unveil the CSI Taojin Big Data 100 index on Wednesday.

The index will weight industries according to the growth in transactions going through Alipay, the price level and the “supply-demand situation”. These weightings will be used to calculate individual stock positions.

Bosera Asset Management, a Shenzhen-based house, said it was launching a passive fund based on the Big Data index.

Alexis He, an analyst at Z-Ben Advisors, a Chinese consultancy, said other asset managers, including “private”, or hedge fund groups, had spoken to CSI about creating customised products based on the index.

– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015)