Biotechnology ETFs, a leadership group for all of this year, succumbed to selling pressure this earlier this week, but the same cannot be said of all health care ETFs.
Investors may be showing a preference more conservative fare when it comes to health care ETFs. The $524 million SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF (NYSE: XPH) confirms the notion. Buyers have stepped into XPH this week in noticeable fashion. [Obamacare Could Boost These ETFs]
XPH has seen above average volume for five consecutive sessions, though that trend appears to be cooling a bit Friday. Natural buying appears to have taken place in XPH this week with the creation of 300,000 shares, according to ETF execution firm WallachBeth Capital.
XPH could be getting some added attention because Obamacare has been in the news and rival ETFs like the iShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF (NYSEArca:IHE) have drawn praise. However, XPH is much different than IHE. The latter allocates over 28% of its weight to blue-chip pharma names Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Merck.
None of those stocks appear in XPH’s top-10 holdings. XPH is an equal weight play where no stock receives a weight north of 3.8%. Top-10 holdings include Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), Salix Pharmaceuticals (NasdaqGM: SLXP) and Zoetis (NYSE: ZTS).
Here’s a chart depicting recent action in XPH’s underlying index, the S&P Pharmaceuticals Select Industry Index (ticker: SPSIPHTR).
