News & Research

Celebrated each May 9, Europe Day is a fitting moment to take stock of the STOXX Europe 600 — which is attracting strong inflows into linked investment products while new ETFs are being introduced. With the latter, the set of trading and strategy possibilities around European equities continues to grow.

STOXX was present at the annual SimCorp Global Summit, where one panel explored the latest evolution of indices, and another one presented the concept of ‘4D’ index investing — which considers a systematic portfolio’s risk, return, sustainability and trading costs.

The STOXX Focus indices build portfolios based on constituents’ geographic revenue sources rather than their country of domicile, providing a more accurate representation of regional risk at a time of rising geopolitical tensions and global trade frictions. BlackRock’s iShares has launched the first in a planned series of ETFs tracking the indices.

ETFs tracking a STOXX or DAX European equity index received a net EUR 9.7 billion over the first quarter, or 36% of inflows in the segment. ETFs mirroring an equity index worldwide registered EUR 66.2 billion in net inflows last month even as markets tumbled, taking YTD inflows to EUR 318.2 billion.

Products such as the Leverage Shares 3x Tesla ETP Securities and Leverage Shares 3x NVIDIA ETP Securities, which track STOXX indices, continue to see high demand as tactical tools for traders and investment firms seeking exposure to rising equity markets.

Assets under management in STOXX-linked ETFs grew 51% in 2025 to EUR 189 billion, following EUR 35.1 billion in net investments. The growth was largely driven by renewed interest in European equities, a segment where STOXX and DAX ETFs captured 44.6% of net new flows.

In its third year of existence, the iShares EURO STOXX 50 ESG ETF offers exposure to a core Eurozone benchmark minus controversial business activities. Sophie Thurner, ETF Product Strategist at BlackRock, explains how the ESG ETF fits in investors’ portfolios and how its underlying index has adapted to evolving regulation.

The iShares Core Multifactor ETF suite was introduced in June 2022. We spoke with Priya Panse, CFA, lead strategist for BlackRock’s US Factor ETFs, to discuss what defines a modern, risk-controlled multifactor strategy.

From the effect of compounding to volatility decay and little interest, there are frequent misconceptions about trading leveraged ETPs. Oktay Kavrak, Head of Communications & Strategy at Leverage Shares, addresses five of them to set the record straight.

Germany’s DAX is outperforming pan-European indices and its ETFs are luring record flows in 2025. Veronika Kylburg, Head of Global Benchmarks DAX at STOXX, discusses with the ETF publication what some of the drivers are behind this performance and explores the benchmark’s methodology changes since 2018.

The asset manager has updated the objective of an existing ETF to track an index focused on European companies with significant share in their respective market segments, competitive business advantage and superior profitability.

Seismic shifts in the environment, technology and socio-demographics — known as megatrends — as well as geopolitical drivers are transforming our world and creating investable themes such as artificial intelligence, defense, digital assets and energy transition metals. Thematic indices offer investors a chance to target the beneficiaries of these trends.