ASX 200 gets thumbs up

Fund managers have overwhelmingly supported the Australian Stock Exchange’s ASX 200 index as the benchmark Australian equities index.

Fund managers have overwhelmingly supported the Australian Stock Exchange’s ASX 200 index as the benchmark Australian equities index.

According to an InTech survey, 75 per cent of passive managers and 62 per cent of active managers are in favour of the ASX 200 as the most appropriate benchmark.

The choice of a benchmark for pooled Australian share funds is up to each individual manager. While most managers seem set to choose the ASX 200, some 13 per cent of passive managers and 2 per cent of active managers are in support of the ASX 100 as their benchmark index. Support for the ASX 300 was 32 per cent from active managers and only 12 per cent from passive managers.

The least appealing index was ASX 500. Only 4 per cent of active managers and wanted to use it as a benchmark and passive managers did not want a bar of it.

The survey results concluded that large cap managers are more likely to slant towards the ASX 100 with its large number of companies with $1 billion in market capitalisation. However, managers with a small cap bias may favour the ASX 300 for companies which contains companies which have at least $50 million in market capitalisation.