Morgan Stanley Capital International has launched a tool for performing global sectoral analysis of investment portfolios. The MSCI All Country Sectors Index covers 51 countries and 76 regions broken down into 10 sectors, 23 industry groups and 59 industries.
MSCI says the product has been developed in response to increasing demand from the investment community for global sector analysis. Although a global trend, sector investing has become particularly popular in Europe, due in part to the creation of EMU which has resulted in a significant reduction in trade barriers, together with the increase in M&A activity.
Research conducted by Merrill Lynch/Gallup has shown that in Europe, 63% of funds are now allocated on a sector basis, up from 22% in 1997. While sector investing is more mature in Europe, MSCI is also seeing substantially increasing use of sector investing and analysis in the US and Asia Pacific.
With historical data back to 1995, MSCI All Country Sectors is built upon the Global Industry Classification Standard. It offers access to index levels, index returns, market caps, market weights and index valuation ratios and is available on either a monthly or daily basis. Three modules are available - Developed Markets Sectors, Emerging Markets Sectors and Asia Pacific Sectors.