What exactly is the MSCI World Index?

You may have not heard of it before, but the MSCI World index is often used as a benchmark for stock funds. Here are five facts about it. There are 1,546 companies from 23 developed markets in the MSCI World Index, so it covers around 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalisation in each country. Around 69% of the index is in the US – up from 66% in 2021 – and just 4.05% is in the UK, down from 4.3% last year.

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Your pension probably already invests in the MSCI World Index.

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For UK investors, its best one-year return was 68% in 1982. The worst was -37% in 1973. 5

Apple is the most valuable company in the index, with a portfolio weighting of 4.7%.