Blog Posts

While the US market has hit multiple record highs in 2021, investor sentiment thus far has been more negative than positive.

The world’s share of responsibly managed assets continued to expand in the two years through 2019, according to one of the most comprehensive industry studies. US-based ESG assets jumped 42% during the period. In Europe, sustainable assets dropped amid higher standards of what constitutes an ESG investment.

Chris Huemmer, Northern Trust Asset Management’s Senior Investment Strategist, discusses his firm’s innovative ETFs tracking multi-factor, ESG and climate strategies, and the role of an index provider in wrapping up a holistic investment approach.

The best risk model is the one most closely aligned to your strategy. That’s why Qontigo offers you a range of Equity Factor Risk Models connected as a single linked risk model.

The first annual ESG survey from the Index Industry Association (IIA) shows asset managers are preparing for sustainability principles to take a more significant role across their portfolios. It also points to significant challenges including the lack of data standardization, and says indices have a critical role to play in facilitating the adoption of ESG strategies.

As purveyors of risk models, we spend much of our time immersed in the arcana of causes and implications of volatility. But we are often asked why investors should care about volatility (aka risk) and, in particular, if higher volatility drives higher returns, why is low volatility viewed as a positive market characteristic? Below, we illustrate the connection between volatility and investors’ perceptions of potential capital losses, which may color their decision to invest.

Changes to the ESG index follow a market consultation and were undertaken to keep the methodology and index aligned with evolving sustainability practices and new guidelines from regulators. A Qontigo analysis shows the new rules didn’t significantly affect the country or industry allocation of the resulting portfolio.

An annual study by IHS Markit and the German Investor Relations Association reveals a diverse and global structure in DAX shares ownership. In a volatile 2020, US- and UK-based institutional investors increased their presence in the German benchmark’s stock universe, while domestic investors continued to pull out.

The STOXX® Global 1800 Index gains 1.5% in dollars in June and jumps 4.6% in euros following a rally in the greenback. Investors turn to Momentum stocks during the month but snub high-dividend shares. Equity volatility continues its march lower.

BlackRock’s ‘Germany at the Sustainability Turning Point’ webinar provided a stage for a discussion around how companies and investors in Europe’s biggest market are adapting in the face of increasing ESG regulation.

Manuela Sperandeo, BlackRock’s Head of Sustainable Indexing for EMEA, and Rodolphe Bocquet, Qontigo’s Global Head of Sustainable Investment, discuss the current landscape for sustainable investing and the impact of Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

The SDI AOP helps investors to imbed the UN SDGs into their investment processes. We asked Claudia Kruse of APG, one of the founding members of the SDI AOP, why and how they use the data within their organization.