MerQube launches South Africa Top 30 index with Oribi, Prescient

MerQube launched the MerQube South Africa Top 30 Index on 6 May 2026 in collaboration with Oribi Capital Partners and Prescient Management. The index is listed as the Oribi South Africa Top 30 Prescient ETF on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and is available in three variants: Price Return (MQZA30P), Total Return (MQZA30T) and Net Total Return (MQZA30N).

The index selects the largest companies listed on the JSE and domiciled in South Africa. Eligible securities must be common equities with a minimum free-float factor of 10 per cent. Constituents are grouped into three sector buckets-Resources (Energy and Materials), Financials (Financials and Real Estate) and Diversified (all other sectors)—and the top 10 names by free-float market capitalisation are chosen from each bucket to form a 30-stock universe.

Weights are applied equally at the sector level, with each sector assigned 33.3 per cent of the index. Within each sector the 10 selected constituents receive equal weight. The index is reviewed annually; reconstitution uses data as of the end of February and changes are implemented on the third Friday of March.

MerQube acts as Index Sponsor, Administrator and Calculation Agent, responsible for methodology design, sector classification, rebalancing and daily calculation. The ETF managed by Oribi and Prescient provides investors with direct access to the index exposure on the JSE.

Zack Bezuidenhoudt, Head of Sales EMEA and APAC at MerQube, commented: “South Africa’s flagship indices have long been dominated by a handful of companies creating concentration risk for investors. This index was designed to provide a transparent, rules-based benchmark that spreads exposure across sectors without sacrificing scale or investability. We are proud to partner with Oribi and Prescient to make balanced exposure to this dynamic economy available through an ETF structure.”

MerQube said the launch is part of an expansion into emerging markets. The firm named the South Africa Top 30 as a cornerstone of its emerging-markets offering and said additional sector-aware indices covering markets such as South Korea and Taiwan are planned.