ETFs In Focus On GICS Changes: Top Tech & FANG

                                                               (Video length 00:11:45)

S&P Dow Jones and MSCI announced major changes in the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) last year, which will take place on September 28, after market close.

These changes will impact many high-flying technology and media stocks and related funds. Overall these will impact about 10% of S&P 500’s market capitalization.

The old Telecom sector is being renamed and broadened as the new Communication Services sector.

It will now be home to Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report), Facebook (FB- Free Report), Netflix (NFLX - Free Report) and many other high-profile stocks.

With the reshuffling, Apple (AAPL - Free Report) and Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) will get more representation in tech ETFs and index funds.

State Street has launched a new sector ETF—the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLC - Free Report) -- to get ahead of these changes. XLC now has more than $422 million in assets under management.

FANG stocks—Alphabet, Facebook, and Netflix--together have more than 50% weight in the portfolio.

Vanguard, another major provider of many sector ETFs and index funds, started using transition indexes in Q2. They have been steadily selling stocks that will leave the tech sector from their tech ETFs.

To learn more about how the top two tech ETFs, the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK - Free Report) and the Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT- Free Report) and related stocks will be impacted, please watch the short video above.