Real estate investment trust exchange traded funds may continue to enjoy greater attention ahead as the REITs sector formally becomes the 11th major industry segment of the S&P Dow Jones Indices at the end of the week.
REITs, which make up about 3% of the S&P 50o’s market valuation, will be splitting away from the financial sector on Friday, becoming the newest sector under the Global Industry Classification Standard, reports Mamta Badkar for the Financial Times.
The new sector will include real estate investment trusts and real estate management and development companies.
[related_stories]“Clearly, there are significant differences between REITs and other segments of the financials sector, which may help explain some of the logic behind separating real estate from financials,” Nick Kalivas, a strategist at PowerShares, told the Financial Times.
When the S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI announced they would create an independent real estate sector, J.P. Morgan projected that active equity funds were so underweight toward REITs that the new sector could cause $100 billion flows to the category. Since the newly minted sector would rival in size to utilities, telecoms and materials sectors, a number of fund managers who have not included REITs exposure may eventually bulk up on real estate.