Number of Stocks In Each S&P 500 Sector

While working on a recent project for Bespoke Premium subscribers, we tracked the number of stocks that have been in each S&P 500 sector on an annual basis since 1989.

The chart below shows the evolution of the number of members in each sector over the last 18 years. Over the entire period shown, the number of stocks in the Financial sector has steadily risen to the point where it currently has the largest weighting and number of stocks in the index. While Technology only had 32 stocks in 1989, that number more than doubled during the tech boom of the late 1990s before leveling off at the 70 level.

On the downside, the Industrial sector had the largest number of stocks in 1989 with 100, but declined steadily during the nineties as it fell out of favor.

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As the above chart highlights, Standard and Poor's has had a habit of adding stocks to the index that are in sectors that are doing well at the time (i.e. Financials, Technology). Given this trend, it comes as no surprise that the sector which has seen the greatest percentage increase in the number of its members over the last five years is Energy. In 2003, the sector bottomed out with 25 members. Since then its number of members has increased to 35, which represents an increase of 40%.

What is interesting, however, is that while the Materials sector has been acting well thanks to the performance of commodities, Standard and Poor's has yet to embrace the trend. Over the last five years, that sector has seen its number of members actually decline by 6 from 34 down to 28.