BlackRock launches an ETF with MSCI World methodology that preserves sectorial and geographical neutrality
16 SEPT, 2025
By Joanna Piwko from RankiaPro Europe
BlackRock has announced today the launch of the iShares MSCI World Sector & Country Neutral Equal Weight UCITS ETF, an exchange-traded fund that replicates the MSCI Equal Weighted Country and Sector Neutral Index, maintaining the country and sector weightings of the benchmark index.
This approach seeks to make the product a core building block for portfolio construction or an alternative to traditional global exposure for individual investors.
ETF with global exposure
The demand for ETFs with global exposure has strongly increased in 2025: the three best-selling exchange-traded funds in Europe this year are based on the MSCI World. The growing weight of megacaps, especially in the United States, has highlighted the need for alternatives to traditional market capitalization strategies. Currently, the ten largest companies represent 36% of the US market, 19% of the European market, and 21% of the Pacific market. Although the equal weighting strategy helps to reduce concentration at the security level, its application to a global index can inadvertently introduce strong sectoral or geographical biases.
The new BlackRock ETF, with a management fee (TER) of 0.20%, is the first in Europe to apply an indexed methodology to MSCI World while maintaining sector and geographical neutrality. In this way, it preserves the high and significant weighting of the US in the parent index, but at the same time offers greater access to companies from other regions, reducing the risk of concentration and providing more diversified exposure by size.
MSCI World is a key exposure for millions of European investors. The iShares approach offers a greater variety of options through an innovative and suitable solution to obtain broad global exposure.
Manuela Sperandeo, co-head of iShares Europe at BlackRock
