Thematic Investing

Stocks jumped by the most in 20 months in July as investors focused on better-than-forecast earnings reports and on expectations that the Federal Reserve may slow down the pace of interest-rate increases.

Qontigo has won the Triple A ‘Best Index Provider for ETFs, Asia: Thematic’ Award 2022 for its STOXX indices.

This year’s market volatility and macro shocks have raised a challenge to the thematic investing boom, but also offer a chance to reappraise the benefits of the investment approach. Overall, the funds continue to attract net inflows as investors seek alternatives to traditional sector-based portfolios in their search for long-term outperformance.

Stocks tumbled in June, with the STOXX® Global 1800 index sliding into a bear market, on concern the world’s major economies may be headed for a recession while central banks are fighting runaway inflation.

We examine the composition and profile of the STOXX Global Digital Entertainment and Education Index, a thematic index that underlies a new iShares ETF, for investors interested in understanding the portfolio’s composition and drivers of returns.

The STOXX Global Digital Entertainment and Education Index captures the global digital transformation of entertainment and education – a long-term structural change. The individual characteristics of the stocks in this index are what set it apart: the Specific Return factor made the largest positive contribution to the seven-year return of all the indices in the study.

The new fund tracks the STOXX Global Digital Entertainment and Education Index, one of the latest additions to the STOXX Thematic indices suite and to a growing partnership in innovative thematic solutions between Qontigo and BlackRock.

Qontigo has licensed the STOXX Global Digital Entertainment and Education Index to BlackRock as an underlying benchmark for an iShares ETF, the latest addition to a growing range of innovative thematic solutions available to European investors.

Eurex has listed futures on three STOXX thematic indices that have a technology focus: breakthrough healthcare, digitalization and digital security. The centrally cleared derivatives complement a growing thematics ecosystem that includes ETFs, helping investors better manage portfolios.

The market volatility and macroeconomic disruptions of 2022 have raised a challenge to the thematic investing boom, but also offer a chance to reappraise the benefits of the investment approach.

A rebound in the month’s last week helped the STOXX® Global 1800 index record a small positive return for May, as investors continue to assess the impact on markets of rising interest rates in the US and elsewhere.

The Qontigo Investment Intelligence Summit held on May 5 was the stage for a discussion around index-based thematic investing. Two industry experts — from BlackRock and Qontigo — explained why assets are flowing into thematics and why the strategies can best target the upside of a world undergoing structural change.