Brazilian corporate sustainability index surges ahead of main market

The Brazilian exchange’s corporate sustainability index is surging ahead of the main market, according to new data.
The ISE (Índice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial) has returned 11.37% so far this year and 8.76% over 12 months, the BMF&BOVESPA exchange said in its latest monthly bulletin.
The ISE returned 4.6% in June alone.
Comparable figures for the main market benchmark, the Ibovespa, reveal a decline of 4.23% in the year to date and a fall of 12.90% over 12 months. It was down 0.25% last month.
The outperformance is also clear over the long-term. Since its launch in 2005, the ISE index has returned 124.85%, against 70.30% for the Ibovespa.
BMF&BOVESPA – the third largest exchange in the world in terms of market value – says the index is designed to create an investment environment compatible with contemporary society’s need for sustainable development and to encourage corporations to be ethically responsible.The index was developed with the aid of the International Finance Corporation and its methodology was designed by the Sustainability Research Center (GVCes) at Fundação Getulio Vargas’s Business School (FGV–EAESP).
“The ISE is a tool for comparative analysis of the performance of the companies listed on BM&FBOVESPA from the standpoint of corporate sustainability, based on economic efficiency, environmental equilibrium, social justice and corporate governance,” the exchange says.
The IGC, the bourse’s Special Corporate Governance Stock Index, is up 4.67% in the year so far and 100.67% since inception.
The exchange also runs the new Carbon Efficient Index (ICO2) with the Brazilian Development Bank.

BMF&BOVESPA was among a group of exchanges including Nasdaq OMX, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) and the Egyptian Exchange which made a commitment to responsible investment at the Rio+20 summit last month. Link