Standard & Poor’s has launched the S&P Equal Weight Sector Indices, providing investors with an investable index designed to represent the sector performance of the 500 leading US large-cap companies in equal measure. The indices are based upon the sectors of the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS).
“The S&P 500 Equal Weight Index has been widely used by investment and trading professionals since its launch in 2003,” says David Blitzer, the Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. “The S&P Equal Weight Sector Indices are designed to meet the need for benchmarking, investing and trading strategies that require sector-focused, size-neutral indices compatible with the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index.”
The S&P Equal Weight Sector Indices are subsets of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index. Launched in 2003, the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index has more than USD6 billion in assets and is widely used as a size-neutral companion to the market capitalization weighted S&P 500. The S&P Equal Weight Sector Indices are rebalanced quarterly. There are nine sector indices, with the Information Technology and Telecommunications sectors being combined to form a single index.