Bryan Taylor, Chief Economist, Global Financial Data
Standard and Poor’s and MSCI recently revised their GICS sector indices, introducing Real Estate as a separate sector, removing it as an industry within Finance. S&P/MSCI also revised several of its sub-indices, both adding and subtracting several of them. The GICS Codes now include 11 Sectors, 24 Industry Groups, 68 Industries and 157 Sub-Industries. Because of these changes, GFD has decided to reorganize and simplify the tickers for its S&P Sector Indices.
Until now, the S&P Sector index tickers used abbreviations to name a particular sector. For example, RAIL was used for railroads and AIRL was used for Airlines. The problem was that it was impossible to know which alphabetic abbreviation was used for each sector. Going forward, GFD will use the actual GICS numerical codes in the tickers to make it easier for our subscribers to find the sector index they want. Once they have the GICS Code for any sector or industry, they can easily put together the ticker for the index using a simple formula. An Excel file of the current GICS codes can be found at
https://www.msci.com/documents/10199/4547797/GICS+Structure+effective+Sep+1%2C+2016.xls/d8600f87-cc12-4070-912f-08590232441d
All S&P tickers used in the GFDatabase begin with an underscore (_), followed by a one or two-digit number indicating whether the index is from the S&P 500 Large Cap (5), S&P 400 Midcap (4), S&P 600 Small Cap (6) or S&P 1500 Supercomposite (15) index. The number is then followed by “SP”, and then the GICS Code.
For example, the code for the S&P 500 Energy Sector is _5SP10 using 5SP for the S&P 500 and 10 for the Energy Sector. The code for the S&P 400 Transports Industry Group is _4SP2030 using 4SP for the S&P 500 and 2030 for the Transportation Industry Group. The code for the S&P 600 Health Care Providers and Services Industry is _6SP351020 using 6SP for the S&P 600 and 351020 for the Health Care Providers and Services Industry. The code for the S&P 1500 Electric Utilities Sub-Industry is _15SP55101010 using 15SP for the S&P 1500 and 55101010 for the Electric Utilities Sub-Industry. This methodology eliminates the need to determine the letter suffix for each sector and industry.
Because the GICS Sectors and Industries are global codes, some industries may not be available for the United States S&P Indices, but GFD Includes all the indices that are available for the S&P 500 Large Cap Indices, S&P 400 Midcap Indices, the S&P 600 Small Cap Indices and the S&P 1500 Supercomposite Indices.
To get more information on these indices, or if you would like a list of the indices, call today to speak to one of our sales representatives at 877-DATA-999 or 949-542-4200.
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Standard and Poor’s and MSCI recently revised their GICS sector indices, introducing Real Estate as a separate sector, removing it as an industry within Finance. S&P/MSCI also revised several of its sub-indices, both adding and subtracting several of them. The GICS Codes now include 11 Sectors, 24 Industry Groups, 68 Industries and 157 Sub-Industries. Because of these changes, GFD has decided to reorganize and simplify the tickers for its S&P Sector Indices.
Until now, the S&P Sector index tickers used abbreviations to name a particular sector. For example, RAIL was used for railroads and AIRL was used for Airlines. The problem was that it was impossible to know which alphabetic abbreviation was used for each sector. Going forward, GFD will use the actual GICS numerical codes in the tickers to make it easier for our subscribers to find the sector index they want. Once they have the GICS Code for any sector or industry, they can easily put together the ticker for the index using a simple formula. An Excel file of the current GICS codes can be found at
https://www.msci.com/documents/10199/4547797/GICS+Structure+effective+Sep+1%2C+2016.xls/d8600f87-cc12-4070-912f-08590232441d
All S&P tickers used in the GFDatabase begin with an underscore (_), followed by a one or two-digit number indicating whether the index is from the S&P 500 Large Cap (5), S&P 400 Midcap (4), S&P 600 Small Cap (6) or S&P 1500 Supercomposite (15) index. The number is then followed by “SP”, and then the GICS Code.
For example, the code for the S&P 500 Energy Sector is _5SP10 using 5SP for the S&P 500 and 10 for the Energy Sector. The code for the S&P 400 Transports Industry Group is _4SP2030 using 4SP for the S&P 500 and 2030 for the Transportation Industry Group. The code for the S&P 600 Health Care Providers and Services Industry is _6SP351020 using 6SP for the S&P 600 and 351020 for the Health Care Providers and Services Industry. The code for the S&P 1500 Electric Utilities Sub-Industry is _15SP55101010 using 15SP for the S&P 1500 and 55101010 for the Electric Utilities Sub-Industry. This methodology eliminates the need to determine the letter suffix for each sector and industry.
Because the GICS Sectors and Industries are global codes, some industries may not be available for the United States S&P Indices, but GFD Includes all the indices that are available for the S&P 500 Large Cap Indices, S&P 400 Midcap Indices, the S&P 600 Small Cap Indices and the S&P 1500 Supercomposite Indices.
To get more information on these indices, or if you would like a list of the indices, call today to speak to one of our sales representatives at 877-DATA-999 or 949-542-4200. 
