Standard & Poor's has extended its series of dividend-focused indexes, adding benchmarks covering Asia, Australia, Europe, Japan and several emerging markets.

Outside of Europe, S&P has never had a dividend-specific index for the other regions and countries covered in the new index launches.

The timing of the launch is not unrelated to the widespread market problems and equities sell-off, according to a company statement about the new products.

Particularly during times of market unrest and risk aversion, dividends assume greater prominence as a cushion against declining equity prices, S&P's index services group points out.

S&P research also shows that dividend-paying issues have outperformed nonpaying issues more in down markets than in up markets. As an example, the S&P 500 was down 36.66% year-to-date, and 20.26% for the current quarter, based on S&P data through Wednesday.

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index was only down 20.26% for the year-to-date period, and 16.8% so far this quarter. The S&P Europe 350 Dividend Aristocrats Index was down 36.80% year-to-date, while the original S&P Europe 350 Index was down 40.36%.

Emerging markets, one focus of the new index series, is a broad equity market where losses have been much greater than in the U.S. and Europe. S&P's BRIC 40 Index was down more than 60% year-to-date.

The Dividend Investor Series is comprised of three dividend families:

• S&P Dividend Aristocrats—focuses on long-term dividend growth
• S&P Dividend Opportunities—focuses on absolute high dividend yield
• S&P Dividend Alternatives—focuses on higher income, or dividend stories with lower correlation to traditional equities.

The newly created indexes are:

• S&P Asia Dividend Aristocrats
• S&P Asia Dividend Opportunities
• S&P Australia Dividend Opportunities         
• S&P Emerging Market Dividend Opportunities
• S&P Europe Dividend Opportunities
• S&P Japan Dividend Opportunities