It was a great year for those investors who focus on index funds and ETF’s as the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600 all showed solids gains, 28.9%, 24.1% and 20.9%, respectively.
Every sector in the S&P 500 was up in 2019 and it was only the Energy Sector that showed declines in the S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600.
The Information Technology Sector led the way across all three indices showing gains of 48.0% in the S&P 500, 42.1% in the S&P MidCap 400, and 39.0% in the S&P SmallCap 600.
S&P 500
In the S&P 500, 445 companies (89%) were up for the year, gaining an average of 32.5%, while 55 companies closed down an average of 13.0%. 35 companies closed at new highs.
In the S&P 500, strong gains were found in Financials (up 29.2%), Industrials (up 26.8%), Consumer Discretionary (up 26.2%), Consumer Staples (up 24.0%), Utilities (up 22.2%), and Health Care (up 18.7%).
S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600
In the S&P MidCap 400, 318 companies (80%) gained an average of 36.8%, while 81 companies were down an average of 19.2%.
In the S&P SmallCap 600, 398 companies (66%) gained an average of 9.29%, while 201 issues fell an average loss of 5.5%.
The higher percentage of companies in the S&P 500 that were higher shows the investor focus on larger cap companies. For the S&P SmallCap 600 companies, only 2/3 of the companies closed higher in 2019.
The full breakdown of all of the sector’s gains and losses are below.
Chart 1: S&P 500 Sector Performance
//
Chart 2: S&P MidCap 400 Sector Performance
//
Chart 3: S&P SmallCap 600 Sector Performance
//