Qontigo Launches Weight Loss Market Index

By Dieter Holger

Qontigo, the index and analytics unit of Deutsche Boerse AG, said Wednesday that it has launched a new market benchmark targeting companies "addressing the rising obesity levels in the global population" that are also set to benefit from health trends among millennials.

The STOXX Health & Weight Loss Index leans toward health care and sporting-goods businesses and contains some 84 companies, including Adidas AG, Nike Inc. and Novo Nordisk AS.

The index is part of Qontigo's growing lineup aimed at thematic investing, an area in which the number of funds has nearly tripled in the last three years, according to fund-tracker Morningstar.

Qontigo is currently in talks with a client to license the index for a fund that would track the benchmark, but couldn't disclose more details, a Deutsche Boerse spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires.

"Thematic investing aims to capture the momentum of disruptive megatrends that fall into the categories of demographics, climate change and technology," said Stephan Flaegel, global head of indexes and benchmarks at Qontigo.

Write to Dieter Holger at [e-mail]; @dieterholger

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 08, 2020 10:52 ET (14:52 GMT)

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