S&P Dow Jones Indices, one of the largest providers of indices for exchange traded funds, today introduced the S&P Europe 350 Equal Weight Index, an equal weight answer to the well-known S&P Europe 350 Index.
“Despite its simplicity, equal-weighting remains one of the most popular forms of alternative weighting,” said Michael Orzano, associate director of global equity indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a statement. “The S&P Europe 350 EWI allows investors to measure the European equity markets while substantially reducing the contribution of the largest companies.”
The S&P Europe 350 Index is the underlying index for the $2.75 billion iShares Europe ETF (NYSEArca: IEV). The index “is drawn from 17 major European markets and intends to provide investors with a tradable and easily replicable snapshot of investable Europe,” according to the index provider.
Last week, S&P Dow Jones Indices introduced the S&P Europe 350 Low Volatility High Dividend Index, which tracks the 50 highest yielding companies from the S&P Europe 350 Index that meet certain diversification, liquidity and volatility requirements. [S&P Dow Jones Launches New Dividend Low Vol Europe Index]
The S&P 350 Europe Index covers 17 European markets and includes 70% of the region’s market cap. Top-10 holdings currently include Nestle, Novartis (NYSE: NVS) and HSBC (NYSE: HBC).
IEV allocates about three-quarters of its weight to the U.K., France, Switzerland and Germany. S&P Dow Jones Indices did not say in the statement if the S&P Europe 350 Equal Weight Index will soon be linked to an ETF.
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