What is the Global Industry Classification Standard?

The Global Industry Classification Standard is an industry classification developed by American provider MSCI and Standard and Poor's in 1999. It's used globally by the financial community and has a structure that consists of 11 sectors, 24 industry areas, 68 industries and 157 sub industries.

Where have you heard about the Global Industry Classification Standard?

The Global Industry Classification Standard has a structure similar to the structure of the FTSE Group, maintained Industry Classification Benchmark. GICS is used as a foundation for it's developers financial indexes, where each company is given a sub industry and a corresponding industry group and sector in accordance to their principal business activity.

What you need to know about the Global Industry Classification Standard.

It is constantly updated by its developers. In November of 2014 a new sector for real estate was proposed and a new sub industry for copper. Both were introduced in August of 2016. The sectors for GICS are as follows: Energy, materials, industrials, consumer discretionaries, consumer staples, healthcare, financials, information technology, telecommunication services, utilities and real estate. The specificity of the industry groups, industries and sub industries ensures that no major field is left unaccounted for.

Find out more about the Global Industry Classification Standard.

If you are interested in the Global Industry Classification Standard, see our page on the Industry Classification Benchmark.