Technology was the only sector in the S&P 500 to generate positive returns in February. It seems some investors remain positive on the S&P 500’s largest sector weight and exchange traded funds, such as the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEArca: XLK).
After surging 37% last year, technology remains a favorite among investors, despite data suggesting technology stocks are relatively expensive as they trade at elevated price-to-earnings compared to the broader S&P 500. Roughly a third of global fund managers say they are overweight tech in their portfolios, according to a recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey.
“Known by its ticker XLK, the fund has been a go-to bet for buyers looking for cheap and broad tech exposure, charging a low expense ratio of 13 basis points. The fund saw almost $616 million in inflows on Thursday, the most since December 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg,” reports Bloomberg.
XLK includes companies from technology hardware, storage, and peripherals; software; diversified telecommunication services; communications equipment; semiconductors and semiconductor equipment; internet software and services; IT services; electronic equipment, instruments and components; and wireless telecommunication services.
“The bullish behavior comes after XLK investors pulled the plug on $1.2 billion worth of bets in February, the largest month of outflows for the fund since October 2014, the data show. Tech, media and telecom stocks have recovered since the broad market selloff on Feb. 5, aided by strong fourth-quarter earnings,” according to Bloomberg.
The PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGM: QQQ), which tracks the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 Index, has added about $200 million in new assets over the past week.
Stocks such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google parent Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) are pivotal to QQQ’s performance.
For more information on the tech sector, visit our technology category.