Singapore - A new tradeable index of the 20 biggest Chinese companies on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) was launched on Monday.

The FTSE ST China Top Index was created in partnership with Singapore Press Holdings and the FTSE group "in response to demand from institutional investors and fund managers in China and around the world," said Ignatius Low, money editor of The Straits Times newspaper.

The index will give them "instant exposure to a smaller, readily tradable basket of highly liquid Singapore-listed China stocks," he said.

For inclusion on the index, companies must have either at least 30 per cent ownership by the Chinese government, companies or nationals, or derive at least 50 per cent of revenues from China, a joint statement said.

The existing FTSE ST China Index was launched in January along with other indexes to create a measure for the more than 140 China-related stocks on the exchange.

New revenue criteria allows companies that were not eligible for the FTSE ST China Index to be included in the new one, including Ferrochina, Hsu Fu Chi International and Yanlord Land Group.

The FTSE ST China Index, with its larger basket of 50 component stocks, will continue to act as a general market barometer of the state of China companies listed in Singapore. (dpa)