MUMBAI (Reuters) – Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) said on Tuesday it has launched two Shariah-complaint equity indices in the country in partnership with India Index Services & Products Ltd.The indices have been derived from the top fifty and top 500 stocks traded on the National Stock Index and covers 80 percent of the traded volume on the exchange, it said in a statement.The S&P CNX Nifty Shariah index comprised the top 40 scrips while the S&P CNX 500 Shariah index comprised 263 scrips, the statement said.

Shariah forbids Muslims receiving interest payments and from investing in companies involved in the production of pork, alcohol, tobacco, pornography, gambling and non-Islamically structured finance for life insurance.