The S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI have announced some major changes to the Global Industry Classification Standard structure which have impacted on the S&P 500 Information Technology sector.
Six companies will leave the current S&P Information Technology sector to join the newly formed Communication Services sector.
These companies are: Activision Blizzard, Alphabet (Google), Electronic Arts, Facebook, Take Two Interactive Software and Twitter.
One company, eBay, will leave the Information Technology sector to join the Consumer Discretionary sector.
The S&P Information Technology sector will therefore consist of 64 companies and be 21% of the S&P 500 index after this event.
Top 10 holdings:
Before:
Name WEIGHT
APPLE INC 17.2%
MICROSOFT CORP 13.2%
FACEBOOK CLASS A INC 6.5%
ALPHABET INC CLASS C 5.7%
ALPHABET INC CLASS A 5.6%
VISA INC CLASS A 4.0%
INTEL CORPORATION CORP 3.5%
CISCO SYSTEMS INC 3.4%
MASTERCARD INC CLASS A 3.0%
NVIDIA CORP 2.6%
New:
Names WEIGHT
APPLE INC 21.5%
MICROSOFT CORP 16.6%
VISA INC CLASS A 5.0%
INTEL CORPORATION CORP 4.3%
CISCO SYSTEMS INC 4.3%
MASTERCARD INC CLASS A 3.8%
NVIDIA CORP 3.3%
ORACLE CORP 2.8%
ADOBE SYSTEM INC 2.5%
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES 2.4%
South Africans can access these shares via the STANLIB S&P500 Info Tech Index Feeder ETF which is a rand denominated fund that trades on the JSE.
The Stanlib ETF is trading at R 5.80 and is off a yearly high of R 7.34. It offers a good entry point into tech stocks for investors who are not moving money offshore and want to hold shares like Apple and Microsoft.
