What is the S&P Global Broad Market Index?
The S&P Global Broad Market Index (also known as the S&P Global BMI) is a widely encompassing, rules-based index that measures global stock market performance.
How Does the S&P Global Broad Market Index Work?
The S&P Global BMI covers approximately 11,000 companies from 46 countries and is converted daily into seven different currency amounts: USD, Euro, GBP, JPY, AUD, CAD and LCL.
The S&P Global BMI is comprised of the S&P Emerging BMI and the S&P Developed BMI. This means the S&P Global BMI includes both emerging and developed countries in its composition.
The S&P Global BMI is also one of the three indices from the S&P Global Equity Index series. The other two, S&P Frontier BMI and the S&P/IFCI, cover frontier markets and emerging markets, respectively.
To be considered for inclusion in the index, all listed stocks within the constituent country must have a float market capitalization of at least $100 million. For a country to be admitted, it must be politically stable and have legal property rights and procedures, among other criteria.
The top 10 constituents of this index fund can be found on the S&P Global BMI page.
Why Does the S&P Global Broad Market Index Matter?
The S&P Global BMI can be used as a benchmark for the global equities portion of an investor's portfolio and to track the performance of a specific emerging/developing markets stock, emerging/developing markets mutual fund, or emerging/developing markets ETF.
Though there is no ETF that directly tracks the S&P Global BMI, an investor may consider simply investing in the iShares S&P Global 100 Index Fund (NYSE: IOO) to increase exposure to several different regional markets.