In our previous blog, we looked at the S&P Factor Indices’ ESG exposures, showing that factor exposures can have an influence on ESG scores. In this blog, we’ll discuss these scores at the sector level and see how implementing an ESG or carbon reduction strategy on poorer ESG-performing factor indices can help investors Read more […]
“Sustainable investing must go mainstream. Fortunately, the momentum is growing.” – Mark Carney Mark Carney’s statement underpins the sentiment of the investment community, where environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations have entered the forefront of investors’ priorities. Whether factor indices have ESG principles integrated or not, understanding a factor’s influence on ESG characteristics, Read more […]
When the S&P 500 ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Index underwent its annual rebalance after markets closed on April 30, 2019, several notable companies were removed, including Wells Fargo, Oracle, and IBM. However, the largest component to be dropped was Facebook. A day before its exclusion, Facebook held a weight of 2.5% in the S&P Read more […]
Human capital, physical capital, and technology have been widely recognized as a fundamental source of economic growth.[1] Dating back to the 1960s and early 1970s, when we saw a rapid increase in educated workers, facilities, and technological catch-up, Japan’s “economic miracle” emerged along with impressive GDP and per capita output growth.[2] Nowadays, these factors are Read more […]
Do you ever wonder where environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors—now used in more than 25%[1] of all assets under management—come from? The short answer is: Mainly from the good-practices checklists maintained by a handful of big ratings agencies. But where did those agencies get their checklists? Mainly from the fruits of a handful of Read more […]
Australian Listed Equities The Australian listed equity market has two characteristics not to be overlooked when constructing a domestic index: its relatively small number of stocks and relatively large exposures to a few specific sectors. These factors alone often mean that the application of a specific indexing methodology can produce more pronounced effects Read more […]
The S&P/ASX Australian Index Series has played a significant role in characterizing the Australian equity market performance since its inception in April 2000. Since then, the S&P/ASX 200 has served as the foundation for benchmarks and index-based investing strategies from sectors to quality, value, and momentum factor approaches. Following the launch of the Read more […]
Economics used to be Political Economy. Today politics in encouraging economics to look at different ideas such as Modern Monetary Theory. MMT argues that a country which borrows in its own currency will never default: as long as the US sells bonds denominated in US dollars, it won’t matter how big the federal budget deficit Read more […]
One of the key objectives for the recently launched S&P/JPX Carbon Efficient Index is to motivate companies within the baseline index, TOPIX, to increase their level of environmental disclosure. By incorporating a mechanism to adjust constituent weights by their respective environmental data, the S&P/JPX Carbon Efficient Index has been designed to incentivize all companies, regardless Read more […]
One of the most salient themes in this year’s 29th Annual SRI Conference was intentionality. The topic of intentionality has jumped to prominence in ESG discussions—particularly in regard to ESG ratings for mutual funds—and understanding what it means is important for ESG market participants. In ESG terms, intentionality aims to evaluate whether a given fund Read more […]
