S&P 500 Financial Stocks’ Gain May Soon Be Defined Away
While the S&P 500 Index’s financial stocks are higher as a group for the first time this year, the gain may be short-lived because of an imminent change in the benchmark’s makeup. Real estate, this year’s leader among four industry groups in the S&P 500 Financials Index, will be separated from finance next month to create an 11th sector index. The industry’s gauge climbed 9.6 percent through last week as insurers added 3 percent, diversified financial companies gained 2.2 percent and banks fell 6.2 percent.