State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the asset manager behind the SPDR brand of exchange-traded funds, has announced the launch of nine US sector equity ETFs on the Deutsche Börse.

Alexis Marinof, head of SPDR ETFs EMEA.

The funds are based on the blue-chip S&P 500 Index and cover the consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, healthcare, industrials, materials, technology and utilities sectors.

The funds provide investors with the opportunity to manage US sector exposures through different stages of the economic cycle whether it be recovery, expansion, slowdown or recession, by way of a sector-rotation strategy, as well as a vehicle to tilt portfolios and gain targeted exposure to specific industries on an ad-hoc basis.

Alexis Marinof, head of SPDR ETFs for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) commented: “The US sectors funds have proved a success in the US and now European investors have access to UCITS vehicles that share the same benchmark and total expense ratio (TER) as their US domiciled cousins.”

He added: “Sector indices have historically displayed higher return dispersion and more discrete exposures than style indices such as large cap, small cap and value. With markets anticipating the first US interest rate hike of the economic cycle later this year, these US sector ETFs help investors to balance the potential for risk and return in their portfolios.”

The parent S&P 500, the basis of the new sector funds, is widely regarded as the best single gauge of the US equities market and is composed of 500 major companies in the leading industries of the US economy. Although the index focuses on the large-cap segment of the market, with approximately 80% coverage of US equities, it also serves as a proxy for the entire US equity market.

Each of the new funds comes with a TER of 0.15%.

SPDR S&P US Consumer Discretionary Select Sector UCITS ETF (ZPDD)
SPDR S&P US Consumer Staples Select Sector UCITS ETF (ZPDS)
SPDR S&P US Energy Select Sector UCITS ETF (ZPDE)
SPDR S&P US Financials Select Sector UCITS ETF (ZPDF)
SPDR S&P US Health Care Select Sector UCITS ETF (ZPDH)
SPDR S&P US Industrials Select Sector UCITS ETF (ZPDI)
SPDR S&P US Materials Select Sector UCITS ETF (ZPDM)
SPDR S&P US Technology Select Sector UCITS ETF (ZPDT)
SPDR S&P US Utilities Select Sector UCITS ETF (ZPDU)

Following this launch, there are now 74 SPDR ETFs available across Europe.