"These indexes deliver exposure to commodity prices by using equities whose share prices track prices for gold, oil or a basket of agriculture products," said John Jacobs, Executive Vice President, NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group.

The NASDAQ Axioma indexes offer an efficient way for portfolio managers to better match their returns with those of the overall oil, gold and agricultural markets. The indexes are rebalanced monthly and holdings information is available every business day.

"This is a valuable new tool for portfolio managers and other market participants who track commodities, particularly in this environment of increasingly volatile and complex markets," added Jacobs.

Ian Webster, Axioma's Managing Director EMEA, said, "The NASDAQ Axioma indexes are unique in terms of content, methodology, pricing and ease of access. By using Axioma's portfolio construction and analytical tools to develop these indexes, we've created a product that allows easy access to commodity exposure—access that is typically much more difficult to obtain."

The NASDAQ Axioma Equity-Commodity Index Series consists of three price and total return indexes—the NASDAQ Axioma Equity-Commodity Oil Index, the NASDAQ Axioma Equity-Commodity Gold Index and the NASDAQ Axioma Equity-Commodity Agriculture Index.