Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB) is a globally utilized standard for the categorization and comparison of companies by industry and sector. It is the official sector classification used across FTSE Russell indexes for analysis, attribution and performance measurement.

ICB is widely adopted by global institutional clients and has many application use cases:

FTSE Russell, the global index provider, confirms today that B&M European Value Retail will be joining the FTSE 100 Index as a result of the September 2020 quarterly review. In the rebalance, ITV will leave the FTSE 100 index and enter the FTSE 250 index.  The rules-driven, impartial quarterly reviews ensure the indexes continue to portray an accurate reflection of the market they represent and form an essential component to the management of the indexes.  The FTSE 250 Index will see the following changes (in alphabetical order), in addition to the amendments described above.  Entering FTSE 250 Index Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust CMC Markets Diversified Gas & Oil Hipgnosis Songs Fund C * Indivior ITV JPMorgan Euro Small Co. Trust Premier Foods SDL Vectura Group Exiting FTSE 250 Index  B&M European Value Retail Bank of Georgia Group Barr (A.G.) Equiniti Group Finablr ** Go-Ahead Group Hammerson PayPoint PPHE Hotel Group Temple Bar Inv Tst ...

 By Mikhail Bezroukov, analytics product manager and Yu Zou, director, quantitative analysis

The COVID-19 crisis has impacted nearly all asset classes, and USD corporate bonds have not been spared. As the mid-March 2020 market volatility affected USD corporate bond prices, it also compromised their liquidity. While these spikes in liquidity costs occurred across the USD corporate bond asset class, we found the level of impact—and the path to returning to pre-crisis levels—varied across credit rating and sectors.

As the onset of the pandemic roiled US markets the second week of March 2020, USD investment grade corporate bonds saw a dramatic increase in liquidity costs. A useful metric for gauging liquidity costs is price liquidity ratio (PLR)— which looks at market impact and measures the movement in price of a security for an executed trade of a given size. A higher PLR represents a larger movement in price for a given trade size and therefore shows lower...

JSE and FTSE Russell: Understanding ESG Ratings and the SID platform Dr. Leila Fourie, CEO (Johannesburg Stock Exchange), Rosie Donachie (London Stock Exchange Group), Aled Jones (FTSE Russell) [[ webcastStartDate * 1000 | amDateFormat: 'MMM D YYYY h:mm a' ]] 90 mins

Sustainable Investing in Fixed Income portfolios: what do I need to know? Sylvain Chateau, London Stock Exchange Group - Joshua Palmer, Willis Towers Watson - Hilary Norris, FTSE Russell [[ webcastStartDate * 1000 | amDateFormat: 'MMM D YYYY h:mm a' ]] 60 mins

By An Luke Lu, director, Yield Book mortgage research

Back in June, we published a blog examining how the first 100 days of the pandemic had impacted the CMBS market. We found that while the entire CMBS market had suffered a sharp decline at the onset of the pandemic, at the 100-day mark some real estate sectors were showing signs of recovery. If we look at the latest numbers, we can see that while some flickers of bright spots remain, the outlook for the CMBS market has become increasingly uncertain as spikes in COVID-19 cases persist throughout the US.

After reaching a near-historic high of 10.32% in June—just shy of their July 2012 historical peak of 10.34%—CMBS 30+ day delinquency rates have dropped in July. As shown below, rates declined across all real estate sectors for the month-over-month period.

Source: Smith Travel, as of August 2020

We can attribute this improving data in large part to maturity extension, forbearance,...

Chinese financial markets have developed rapidly in recent years, both relative to the size of the domestic economy and the global economy. The Chinese government bond market has a market capitalization that now exceeds that of UK gilts and German Bunds. Reforms in Chinese financial markets, and inclusion of Chinese equities and bonds in major global indexes, have improved access to, and increased foreign participation in Chinese markets. In this paper, we review the transformation of this rising financial asset with a number of considerations, including:

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By Robin Marshall, director of fixed income, Global Investment Research

This blog post summarizes some of the key findings in the recently published paper: Chinese bond market; evolution and characteristics, July 2020.

Alongside the recent collapse in G7 bond yields, as the COVID-19 crisis has developed, Chinese government bond yields have backed up in recent months, reflecting PBOC caution in cutting...

Our annual survey of the market conducts in-depth research to better understand how the coming together of two trends—smart beta and sustainable investment—are perceived, considered and used by asset owners around the world. 

We are finding that over the last couple of years a growing number of institutional investors have taken the opportunity to integrate certain sustainability parameters—usually climate-related, but sometimes other ESG measures, too—when they have awarded new smart beta mandates. This has become a majority, the new normal, for new asset owner smart beta mandates. 

Five key findings:

Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB) is a globally utilized standard for the categorization and comparison of companies by industry and sector. It is the official sector classification used across FTSE Russell indexes for analysis, attribution and performance measurement.

ICB is widely adopted by global institutional clients and has many application use cases:

Webinar 3: The Rise of the Green Economy Fiona Reynolds, CEO PRI, Waqas Samad, Director of Information Services, London Stock Exchange Group, CEO of FTSE Russell [[ webcastStartDate * 1000 | amDateFormat: 'MMM D YYYY h:mm a' ]] 150 mins

Our annual survey of the market conducts in-depth research to better understand how the coming together of two trends—smart beta and sustainable investment—are perceived, considered and used by asset owners around the world. 

We are finding that over the last couple of years a growing number of institutional investors have taken the opportunity to integrate certain sustainability parameters—usually climate-related, but sometimes other ESG measures, too—when they have awarded new smart beta mandates. This has become a majority, the new normal, for new asset owner smart beta mandates. 

Five key findings:

US equity markets have made a steady climb in recent months, with notable gains in the US large-cap Russell 1000® Index and US small-cap Russell 2000® Index in July and August. And this trend may or may not continue into the Fall as we reach an inflection point for U.S. investors, according to data and insight from global index provider FTSE Russell.

The Russell 1000 has risen 11.5% in the third quarter and 5.4% in August as of August 25th and is now up 8.4% for the year. The Russell 2000, while still down 5% in 2020, has gained 9.2% and 6.2% for the second quarter and August, respectively.

Philip Lawlor, Managing Director, Global Equity Market Research, FTSE Russell:

“US equity markets continue to enjoy the benefits of a very supportive Fed policy approach, which was only reinforced by Chairman Powell's recent Jackson Hole speech, as the Central bank retains capacity to continue asset buying and further cuts in interest rates to essentially force...

Launch follows significant international investor interest in Saudi Arabian local currency government debt New index comes months after the successful inclusion of Saudi Arabia to FTSE equity indexes The Saudi Arabian government bond market will be considered in FTSE Russell’s annual September Fixed Income Country Classification review Globally, FTSE Russell's range of global fixed income indexes are tracked by $3.8 trn AUM

Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB) is a globally utilized standard for the categorization and comparison of companies by industry and sector. It is the official sector classification used across FTSE Russell indexes for analysis, attribution and performance measurement.

ICB is widely adopted by global institutional clients and has many application use cases:

 By Mikhail Bezroukov, analytics product manager and Yu Zou, director, quantitative analysis

The COVID-19 crisis has impacted nearly all asset classes, and USD corporate bonds have not been spared. As the mid-March 2020 market volatility affected USD corporate bond prices, it also compromised their liquidity. While these spikes in liquidity costs occurred across the USD corporate bond asset class, we found the level of impact—and the path to returning to pre-crisis levels—varied across credit rating and sectors.

As the onset of the pandemic roiled US markets the second week of March 2020, USD investment grade corporate bonds saw a dramatic increase in liquidity costs. A useful metric for gauging liquidity costs is price liquidity ratio (PLR)— which looks at market impact and measures the movement in price of a security for an executed trade of a given size. A higher PLR represents a larger movement in price for a given trade size and therefore shows lower...

Our annual survey of the market conducts in-depth research to better understand how the coming together of two trends—smart beta and sustainable investment—are perceived, considered and used by asset owners around the world. 

We are finding that over the last couple of years a growing number of institutional investors have taken the opportunity to integrate certain sustainability parameters—usually climate-related, but sometimes other ESG measures, too—when they have awarded new smart beta mandates. This has become a majority, the new normal, for new asset owner smart beta mandates. 

Five key findings:

Our annual survey of the market conducts in-depth research to better understand how the coming together of two trends—smart beta and sustainable investment—are perceived, considered and used by asset owners around the world. 

We are finding that over the last couple of years a growing number of institutional investors have taken the opportunity to integrate certain sustainability parameters—usually climate-related, but sometimes other ESG measures, too—when they have awarded new smart beta mandates. This has become a majority, the new normal, for new asset owner smart beta mandates. 

Five key findings:

By An Luke Lu, director, Yield Book mortgage research

Back in June, we published a blog examining how the first 100 days of the pandemic had impacted the CMBS market. We found that while the entire CMBS market had suffered a sharp decline at the onset of the pandemic, at the 100-day mark some real estate sectors were showing signs of recovery. If we look at the latest numbers, we can see that while some flickers of bright spots remain, the outlook for the CMBS market has become increasingly uncertain as spikes in COVID-19 cases persist throughout the US.

After reaching a near-historic high of 10.32% in June—just shy of their July 2012 historical peak of 10.34%—CMBS 30+ day delinquency rates have dropped in July. As shown below, rates declined across all real estate sectors for the month-over-month period.

Source: Smith Travel, as of August 2020

We can attribute this improving data in large part to maturity extension, forbearance,...

By Robin Marshall, director of fixed income, Global Investment Research

This blog post summarizes some of the key findings in the recently published paper: Chinese bond market; evolution and characteristics, July 2020.

Alongside the recent collapse in G7 bond yields, as the COVID-19 crisis has developed, Chinese government bond yields have backed up in recent months, reflecting PBOC caution in cutting interest rates. Despite the growth in the Chinese government bond market since the GFC, the market still has a very low level of foreign participation, at less than 10%, as Chart 1 shows. This compares with more typical foreign ownership levels around 30% in developed markets like UK gilts. But even in a number of EMs, like South Africa, foreign ownership is significantly higher at 30.1% (National Treasury Data, July, 2020). The slow pace of financial reforms, lack of renminbi convertibility, and restricted liberalization of China's capital markets until recent years...