Blog posts

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.

Anna Georgieva is part of the Qontigo Sustainable Investment Team. As someone who has seen firsthand the evolution of the sustainability space we sat down with Anna to get her thoughts on the intersection of financial markets and ESG and what to look out for in the coming months. 

The iSTOXX APG World Responsible Investment Indices were designed to ‘layer in’ various sustainability filters in order to measure the effect on risk and returns of each individual ESG criteria on a developed-markets global equities portfolio. Hamish Seegopaul and Yurong Gu explain how the new indices came about and discuss the value of the collaboration with the Netherlands’ APG and with BlackRock.

The results of the STOXX Global ESG Leaders Index’s annual review are out. Qontigo’s broadest benchmark tracking the highest ESG-scoring companies now comprises 410 constituents: 270 from Europe, 79 from North America and 61 from Asia/Pacific.

As the DAX indices complete the biggest reform in their three-decade history, we talk to Stephan Flaegel, Chief Product Officer, Indices and Benchmarks, at Qontigo, to hear what the new rules mean for the flagship DAX and how quality, simplicity and alignment with international standards were key drivers in the overhaul.

Ronald van Dijk, Deputy CIO at APG Asset Management, discusses how the recently launched iSTOXX APG World Responsible Investment Indices help pension funds and other investors incorporate different layers of sustainability ambitions on portfolios in an innovative, flexible and transparent way.