Ant Financial’s Stock Index Pulls From eCommerce Metrics​

Alibaba’s financial arm is officially tracking eCommerce.

Yesterday (April 9), Ant Financial Services Group — the finance affiliate of Alibaba Holding Group — launched the CSI Taojin Big Data 100 Index, which monitors and reports the financial performance of large online retailers in China.

The index — which is operated in a partnership between Ant Financial, Bosera Asset Management, Shanghai Gildata Service and China Securities Index Co. — first entered the pilot phase on Jan. 18, and is comprised of 100 A-share stocks representing a wide range of industries. The sales of these online retailers are all tracked via Alipay.

Alibaba notes that the CSI Taojin Big Data Index operates in a manner beyond the that of a traditional stock index. In addition to tracking the movements of share prices, Shanghai Gildata Services analyzes Alipay online sales data in real-time and combines it with offline financial data, thus continuously updating the index. Alibiba cites that this feature makes the CSI Taojin Big Data Index the first index of its kind in China.

“We’re hoping that our index is going to be stronger than the actual A share market,” Yuan Leiming, the general manager of Ant’s finance division, told Reuters in an interview. He added that the index has grown by about 65 percent since it first debuted (in the aforementioned pilot phase).

Prior to the official launch of the CSI Taojin Big Data Index, Howhow Zhang, director at Z-Ben Advisors remarked, “It’s very sensible from Alibaba’s perspective because they attacked the money market fund first and have seen huge success,” reports Reuters.

Reuters also reported that Leiming confirmed an anticipated June launch for  the companies’ online bank, MYbank, in which Ant Financial will reportedly have a 30 percent stake.