The reason indices are important is because they symbolize the DNA of investing, be it conventional, ethical or faith based.
The three major functions of the indices are:
- they provide a pulse of the health of the market place (in theory),
- they are the basis of investable products and
- they allow investors to know how their fund, portfolio , stock, etc, behaved against the benchmarks, be it DJIA, S&P 500, FTSE 100, Russell 2000, TR-IR Islamic Indices.