The iShares MSCI Belgium ETF offers exposure to 38 Belgian stocks (mainly mid-caps). Belgium's risk-adjusted return track record is not very compelling, while it has lagged Swedish equities both over the long-term as well as short-term. Belgian GDP growth, which appeared to be trending higher from the lows of Q3-23, looks to have topped out, with the current year's forecasts coming across as quite bland.
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The company manages a fund that focuses primarily on investing in securities that form part of a specified index, which aims to track the performance of the Belgian equity market across all market capitalizations. With an investment strategy that allocates at least 80% of its assets towards securities included in its benchmark index or those with similar economic characteristics, the fund is committed to mirroring the index's performance as closely as possible. The underlying index encompasses a wide range of companies, from large to small capitalization, providing a comprehensive view of Belgium's equity market landscape. Despite its broad exposure to the Belgian market, the fund is classified as non-diversified, indicating its potential concentration in certain securities or market sectors.
The primary service involves investing in the component securities of its underlying index. This strategy is designed to replicate the performance of the index, which represents the full spectrum of the Belgian equity market. The selection of securities is based on their ability to reflect the economic characteristics of the sectors and companies within this market, from large-cap to small-cap entities.
Beyond direct index components, the fund extends its investment to assets and financial products that exhibit economic characteristics substantially identical to those of the index securities. This approach expands the fund's ability to achieve its objective of tracking the index's performance closely, leveraging financial instruments and assets with similarities in market behavior and investment profile.
The fund’s strategy highlights the importance of representing the large-, mid-, and small-capitalization segments of the Belgium equity market. By ensuring versatile market coverage, the fund aims to provide investors with a comprehensive investment product that is reflective of the entire market's performance, rather than being limited to a particular sector or cap-size.