Hi. I was wondering if anyone had any graphs, or tables etc... on the past performance of the ASX 200? How long has there been tracking of the ASX 200? Also, I was wondering how ETF's decide on what percentage they invest into varying shares. For example, I saw today that STW's highest holding is with BHP at about 13%, while the second highest holding is down at around 5%. What determines the balance of these funds (ETF's)? How often does the ASX 200 change? How often does STW update their top 200 shares?
Most information on the ASX200 can be found on the S&P website: Standard & Poor's - Indices S&P/ASX 200 There is also a factsheet: Standard & Poor's - S&P/ASX 200 Factsheet (PDF) You should also read up on the Index Methodology - although much of the detail is very technical. It does help to have a basic understanding of how an index is created. Simply put - the index is weighted to various shares based on market capitalisation. Index tracking ETFs like STW will use the same weightings - and will buy and sell shares to maintain those weightings as the index is re-weighted (Quarterly I think - unless something else happens in the meantime, such as a merger between two companies within the index)
You're a legend Sim. I didn't realise this index was only set up in 2000. I saw a graph earlier today which showed it's performance since 2000. I assumed it had been around longer for some reason though. Thank you, once again.
Yes he is Hi Compleks, It was the All Ordinaries which was around previously (and sometimes still mentioned). The problem with the All Ordinaries was that they kept on changing the number of stocks in the index, it was between 290 to 320 or so but kept on changing. The All Ordinaries is similar to the now S&P/ASX300, which ironically has 298 companies in it (how does that happen? lol Standard & Poor's - Indices S&P/ASX 300)) Cheers, Dan
Hi AshWright, According to S&P the Number of Constituents (NC) for S&PASX200 is 200. Standard & Poor's - Indices S&P/ASX 200 Cheers, Dan
Cheers Dan, You are right, however acording to that site, the ASX200 had 201 companies till about 2 weeks ago. The 202 must have been from last year. I guess my point is that the index is not always exactly 200 campanies. Which makes sense, when you have takovers, mergers and splits.
