iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund (XSB) Plunged -0.04% on Aug 28

August 28, 2017 - By Marguerite Chambers

Shares of iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund (TSE:XSB) last traded at $27.66, representing a move of -0.04%, or $-0.01 per share, on volume of 36,963 shares. After opening the trading day at $27.67, shares of iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund traded in a close range. iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund currently has a total float of 79.20M shares and on average sees 49,040 shares exchange hands each day. The stock now has a 52-week low of $27.6 and high of $28.44.

Canada: S&P/TSX Index

The S&P/TSX Composite Index is the headline index of equities listed on Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).Its components are market capitalization-weighted and together the constituents of the index account for 70% of TSX market capitalization.
The S&P/TSX Composite replaced the TSE 300 Index.

Inclusion in the index

The S&P/TSX Composite has eligibility criteria that among others require that a candidate stock for inclusion in the index must be listed on the TSX and the company behind the stock must be incorporated under Canadian laws.

Being a market capitalization weighted index, components of S&P/TSX Composite must weigh at least 0.05% of the index. Additionally, index candidate must have traded at a minimum average price of C$1 over in the last three months and maintained a price of at least C$1 in the last three trading days of the month immediately before the index is rebalanced. Still on market capitalization, the index is also float adjusted, whereby restricted stocks, such as those held by company insiders and stock that don’t trade frequently such as those held by the government and venture capitalists are excluded.

Liquidity of a stock is another important consideration for inclusion in The S&P/TSX Composite. Though measure is taken so that no single stock dominates the movement of the index, a security must be liquid enough in terms of volume traded and dollar value. As such, the number of transactions in a security must be at least 0.025% of all the sum of trading volume of eligible securities. iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund has relatively good liquidity.

The S&P/TSX Composite is the primary gauge of the performance of Canadian stocks, especially given its massive coverage of the country’s equity market. Besides being a benchmark, the S&P/TSX Composite is also an investible index.

The index has about 250 components representing a variety of sectors. Of the index’ sectors, Financials is the largest, accounting for 36% of the index. The second-largest sector in the index is Energy, representing 20% of the index. Canada has a booming energy sector backed by oil drilling, which explains the large position of Energy in S&P/TSX Composite. iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund is a stock traded on the Canadian exchange.

Besides Financials and Energy, Materials, Industrials and Consumer Discretionary make the top 5 sectors in the index.
The S&P/TSX Composite is regularly rebalanced to remove constituents that fall short of eligibility requirement and replace them with newly eligible ones.

Index performance

S&P/TSX Index hit its lowest level on record of 217.50 points in February 1950. But the index reached an all-time high of 15657.63 points in September 2014, backed by soaring gold and crude oil prices. Excitement in the Canadian energy and commodities sectors also provided a boost to the Financials sector, thus lifting the index to the record high.

After a lull, investors are jostling for Canadian stocks again amid hopes of a bright future for commodities where prices will continue to strengthen after a long period of soft prices. The move by OPEC members to cap oil output to stabilize oil prices is also boosting investor appetite in Canadian stocks. The stability of the Canadian economy and the strong corporate governance standards are other reasons Canadian stock market is heating up with an influx of domestic and foreign retail investors. Professional analysts might be interested how this will affect iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund.

More notable recent iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund (TSE:XSB) news were published by: Theglobeandmail.com which released: “Bond ETFs confuse you? Here’s a simple guide” on December 16, 2011, also Theglobeandmail.com with their article: “Beware the risk in bond funds” published on July 10, 2013, Theglobeandmail.com published: “How safe are short-term bond funds?” on August 30, 2013. More interesting news about iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund (TSE:XSB) were released by: Theglobeandmail.com and their article: “Four tips for nervous bond investors” published on June 14, 2013 as well as Theglobeandmail.com‘s news article titled: “Watch out for tracking error when buying ETFs” with publication date: October 15, 2010.

iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund seeks to provide income by replicating, to the extent possible, the performance of the DEX Short Term Bond Index, net of expenses. The company has market cap of $2.19 billion. The DEX Short Term Bond Index is a market capitalization weighted index consisting of a diversified range of investment grade federal, provincial, municipal and corporate bonds with a term to maturity between one and five years. It currently has negative earnings. XSB invests in sectors, such as federal, financial, provincial, energy and real estate.