The OP-Europe Index fund offers an affordable route to European stock markets and complements actively managed stock and fixed income funds. The largest target markets of the fund are the UK, Germany, France, and Switzerland.
In an index fund, the fund's assets are invested to track the performance of a given group of stocks, or market index. OP-Europe Index tracks the MSCI Europe Screened index, and the fund's investments are focused on the industrial, financial services and healthcare sectors. Index funds are a form of passive investment, which means that the portfolio manager does not select stocks independently but instead tracks the movements of the selected index. Dividends from stocks are automatically reinvested into the fund. Since the fund's assets are invested in the stocks of the largest companies by market capitalization, its investments may significantly concentrate on certain sectors, such as information technology, finance, and energy.
Our view is that companies that act sustainably hold a competitive edge in the long term. For this reason, the fund tracks an index that is committed to maintaining a 30 per cent lower carbon intensity compared to the parent index. Additionally, the index excludes companies whose revenue depends on the production of coal, tobacco, or controversial weapons, among others.