Index

The Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) helps investors assess companies’ contributions to sustainability themes using the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The asset owner-led effort provides a robust SDG-alignment framework and data, and is already used worldwide by investors for implementation and tracking of sustainability strategies, and engagement with multiple stakeholders.

At an IPE webinar last month, experts from WTW and Qontigo explained how the STOXX Willis Towers Watson Climate Transition Indices (CTIs) can help investors manage climate transition risk on a forward-looking basis. The audience also heard how this can be achieved without increasing a portfolio’s overall risk.

The STOXX Global 1800 index fell 3.9% in dollars last month, for a loss of 17.9% in 2022. Momentum stocks led the retreat in the year while automobiles were the worst-performing sector. Dividend stocks performed relatively well despite a background of rising interest rates.

Stocks declined in December, wrapping the STOXX® Global 1800 index’s worst year since 2008, as investor concerns lingered about the impact of inflation and higher interest rates on economic and earnings growth.

In connection with a takeover, the free float of Uniper SE has dropped below ten percent and the company will be deleted from the SDAX. According to the „Guide to the DAX Equity Indices“, section 5.1.2, the company no longer meets the basic criteria required to remain in the index (minimum free float of ten percent).

“The overarching story around the components that make up Metaverse still have a very long-term appeal when it comes to growth and innovation,” said Arun Singhal, global head of product management at Qontigo, in an interview with ETF.com.

SFDR Level 2 standards come into effect in 2023. Antonio Celeste and Saumya Mehrotra from Qontigo’s Sustainability Product Management team look into the concept of ‘Sustainable Investment’ and discuss how to measure and approach such investments.

Following a push from local authorities and significant evolution in ESG data disclosure, investors can now access reliable corporate information and invest in Chinese companies leading in sustainability.

This month’s UN COP15 biodiversity summit will accelerate the discussion around nature loss and advance the notion that mismanagement of investment portfolios’ biodiversity impact entails risks. On a positive note, innovation in datasets now allow the integration of biodiversity metrics in investment strategies and indices, opening the possibility of similar progress in this field as has occurred in recent years with climate action.

The new SDI Innovation Outlook dataset from the Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) helps investors anticipate companies’ future contributions to the SDGs based on patenting of intellectual property.

The index follows a unique patents-based stock selection methodology targeting innovators and specialists that are helping create and deploy the Metaverse. With it, Qontigo expands its wide suite of thematic indices harnessing the upside of companies at the vanguard of new technologies.

BlackRock has launched a new ETF (exchange traded fund), giving European clients targeted exposure to a wide variety of companies active in developing metaverse technologies. The iShares Metaverse UCITS ETF [MTAV] will track the STOXX Global Metaverse Index.