Blog posts

The STOXX Global 1800 Index climbs 5.4% in month when measured in dollars and including dividends, led by US and European markets. Factor, thematic and dividend strategies struggle to catch up with strong showing from benchmarks.

B3, operator of the Brazilian stock exchange, will list futures on the two European blue-chip indices in December. The new products will give local investors direct access to the European market without leaving their home exchange.

Lyxor ETF Germany and Austria’s Head of Product Development & Engineering explains how the change in the underlying index for the Lyxor 1 STOXX® Europe 600 UCITS ETF means the fund now complies with sustainability labels and meets the responsible criteria of retail and institutional European investors.

Rick Redding of the Index Industry Association (IIA) and Qontigo’s Arun Singhal discuss what role indices will play in an asset-management industry increasingly veering towards sustainability considerations in the portfolio-construction process.

Sustainability indices and analytics are crucial catalysts for investors to transition from ‘brown’ to ‘green’ portfolios. However, the shift is being hindered, among other things, by inconsistent national legislations and lack of proper ESG disclosures from companies. Regulators have a key role to play to overcome these obstacles.

As sustainable investing’s uptake continues to gather pace, index-based solutions have gained investors’ favor as a simple, low-cost and transparent way to implement sustainable strategies.

A webinar organized by Risk.net and Eurex addressed the surge in interest in ESG derivatives and explored what lies ahead for the market amid increasing regulation and continued improvements in data and index design.

The STOXX Willis Towers Watson Climate Transition Indices (CTIs) are an innovative new family of indices designed to manage climate transition risk through a forward-looking, bottom-up analysis of the impact on company valuations from moving to a low-carbon economy. The indices help address risks and opportunities arising from climate transition in a transparent, systematic way and result in portfolios consistent with the Paris Agreement goals.

Manuela Sperandeo, BlackRock’s EMEA Head of Sustainable Indexing, discusses her firm’s investment mandate tracking the iSTOXX APG World Responsible Low-Carbon SDI Index, and explains how using indices can enhance transparency, efficiency and predictability in the construction process of a climate-aware and sustainable portfolio.

The STOXX Global 1800 Index falls 4% in month when measured in dollars and including dividends. The US Federal Reserve indicates it may raise interest rates as early as next year amid signs that a spike in inflation could last longer than previously thought. US and European stocks drop in the month, led by Momentum, basic-resources and high-dividend shares.

A Qontigo analysis shows that the DAX enlargement contributed to the German benchmark’s diversification, decrease in concentration, stability and market representation, and resulted in relatively limited changes to style exposures. In most cases, those changes were not of significant nature.

We talk to Abhishek Gupta, FlexShares’ Senior Quantitative Strategist, about the company’s new ETFs covering low volatility and high dividend strategies in emerging markets. The funds, which track STOXX indices, include Northern Trust Asset Management’s proprietary quality and ESG screens, as well as climate filters, aimed at helping improve risk-adjusted returns.