The new OBSFX seafood index will enable investors to buy and sell exchange traded products that track the shares of sea food companies.
The new Oslo Børs Seafood Index (OBSFX) is being calculated and distributed in real time from today, Thursday 14 April. In addition, exchange traded products will be listed from tomorrow that will make it easy for investors to gain exposure to the new index.
Total value of seafood companies up from NOK 14 billion to NOK 148 billion
Seafood has become an increasingly important industry on Oslo Børs. Over the last ten years, the market value of the seafood companies listed on Oslo Børs has grown from NOK 14 billion to NOK 148 billion. Seafood has also grown as a proportion of the total market value of all companies listed on Oslo Børs during this time and has increased from 1% to over 8%, as illustrated by the graph below.
Listing ETNs with the seafood index as the underlying benchmark
The new index has been designed to be investable so as to enable banks and fund managers to offer products and funds that track the index.
Tomorrow will see the listing of new exchange traded products that have the new seafood index as their underlying benchmark. The new exchange traded products will be ETNs (exchange traded notes), which are as easy to trade as shares.
Up 21.6% so far this year
The new seafood index is up 21.6% so far this year. For comparison, the Oslo Børs Benchmark Index is down 3.5%.
At inception the OBSFX will consist of eight seafood companies: Marine Harvest, Bakkafrost, SalMar, Lerøy Seafood, Austevoll Seafood, Havfisk, Norway Royal Salmon and Grieg Seafood.
The index consists of seafood companies listed on Oslo Børs in GICS sector 30202030 (Packaged Foods & Meats). Companies have to meet a liquidity requirement to be included in the index, which is that a company’s shares must have been traded on at least 90% of days in the previous six months. The index is free-float adjusted, which means that it is the number of free-floating shares that determines a company’s weighting in the index. The index will be revised twice a year, in June and December. When the index is revised, companies will be ‘capped’ so that no single company will represent more than 30% of the index.
About the old seafood index OSLSFX
We already have a seafood index, the OSLSFX, which is part of our focus on strong sectors (energy, shipping and seafood). However, this sector index was not designed to be investable but rather only as an indicator of the seafood sector’s performance on Oslo Børs and Oslo Axess.
Seafood is one of the sectors that has risen the most of all at Oslo Børs. Over the last ten years, the OSLSFX has risen by a remarkable 431%, as illustrated by the graph below.
