The term tiger is typically applied to countries undergoing rapid economic growth and enjoying high levels of exports, says S&P Vice President of Index Services Alka Banerjee. And those countries have indeed undergone rapid growth. The S&P Southeast Asia 40 Index was up nearly 30% for the first nine months of 2007 and up almost 46% for the 12-month period.

However, this isn't the first index of this kind. In partnership with the stock exchanges of the five member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, FTSE launched its FTSE/ASEAN Index Series in 2005 covering Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. The series includes a 40-stock investable index, the FTSE/ASEAN 40 Index.

The most obvious difference between the two indexes is the inclusion of Singapore, a developed market, in the FTSE index. The classifications of the countries could be an issue for investors looking to invest in emerging markets but who may already have exposure to Singapore through investments in developed international markets.

Singapore represents a significant portion of the FTSE index—12 stocks and more than 46% of the index's market capitalization. Moreover, six of the index's top 10 stocks are Singapore stocks. In addition to excluding Singapore, the S&P index has a modified market capitalization weighting scheme which limits individual stocks to 10% of the index and individual countries to 40% of the index; each country must be represented by at least four components. So while the Philippines has just one stock in the FTSE index and represents a little more than 1% of the index, in the S&P Southeast Asia 40 Index, the Philippines is represented by four stocks and makes up more than 9% of the index. Malaysia is the largest country in the S&P index, representing about 35% of the index, while Thailand is about 30% and Indonesia is nearly 26%. Essentially, if you are looking to capture the performance of the ASEAN region, you would do well to go with the FTSE index. However, if you are strictly looking for exposure to Southeast Asian emerging markets, the S&P index is more practical.

In addition to being included in their respective countries' indexes in the S&P index family, components of the S&P Southeast Asia 40 Index must have a float-adjusted market capitalization of $500 million and a three-month average daily value traded of at least $1 million.