ASX 100 represents the top 100 Australian companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange compiled by Standard and Poors and is weighted by market capitalization. That means the individual contributions are determined by the company’s size (float adjusted) relative to all of the ASX Top 100 companies’ aggregate market capitalization.
The Australia top 100 share index is a variation of similar large capitalization equity indices from a concentrated index such as the ASX Top 20 or DAX 30 to comparable diversified large cap indexes like S&P 500 and FTSE 100.
While a broad market capitalization index is intended to track companies’ diversified portfolio, the financial and material sectors still make 40% of the index. Hence, the long-term returns of the Australian share market correlate strongly to the returns of these two sectors.
ASX 100 List
The table below list the Top 100 Australian companies by market capitalization.
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The index includes a mix of large and mid cap companies, with the minimum size for a company to be considered in the index is between $1bil and $2bil market cap.
ASX 100 Companies Sector Summary
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Predictably, financials (excluding real estate) accounts for almost 25% of the index. A large portion of the financial sector consists of the major banks. The materials sector is the second largest sector in the index, followed by healthcare. In total, these 3 sectors make up more than half of the Australian listed market.
In line with heavy sector concentration, the index’s top 10 positions account for 50% of the index.
The sector weighting for ASX is similar to the other Australian market indexes.
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While there are ETFs that track ASX equities index like ASX 20, ASX 200 and sector specialists like ASX REIT ETFS.
ASX 100 ETF
There was an ETF (ANZ ETFS S&P/ASX 100 ETF (ZOZI) that tracked the index, but it was delisted, and there are currently no index funds that replicate the ASX100 index.
Alternatively, investors can recreate the index by constructing a portfolio with a position similar to the index to pick a portfolio of stocks from ASX 100 list or use one of the other ASX exchange traded funds that tracks a similar benchmark (like the ASX 200). Using an index fund that tracks a similar benchmark is a good alternative as the overall difference in return is not that noticeable over the long run.