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. 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 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.