GICS – Global Industry Classification Standard

What Is GICS?

The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) is a hierarchical classification of industries developed in 1999 by MSCI and Standard & Poor's (S&P). GICS consists of 11 sectors, 24 industry groups, 69 industries and 158 sub-industries, into which S&P assigns every major public company. GICS is similar to the ICB (Industry Classification Benchmark) used by the FTSE Group.

GICS forms the basis for S&P and MSCI financial market indices, in which every company is assigned according to its principal business activity to exactly one sub-industry and thus to one industry, one industry group, and one sector.

"GICS" is a registered trademark of McGraw Hill Financial and MSCI Inc.

GICS Hierarchy

1. Sector (11 sectors)
2. Industry group (24 groups)
3. Industry (69 industries)
4. Sub-industry (158 sub-industries)

Usage in Finanzoo

In Finanzoo, stocks can be filtered by GICS sector and industry – useful for sector-specific comparisons: The Finanzoo F-Score and valuation ratios such as P/E ratio or ROA are most meaningful when companies from the same industry are compared. For investors, GICS is also an important tool for portfolio diversification.

Complete GICS Classification

Source: Wikipedia – Global Industry Classification Standard, as of October 2022. "GICS" is a registered trademark of McGraw Hill Financial and MSCI Inc.