what is the msci all country world index acwi 
the msci all country world index acwi is a stock index designed to track broad global equity market performance maintained by morgan stanley capital international msci the index comprises the stocks of nearly 3 000 companies from 23 developed countries and 24 emerging markets as of dec 29 2023 1fund managers use the msci acwi as a guide for asset allocation and a benchmark for the performance of global equity funds the index is also used as the basis for creating investment products such as exchange traded funds etfs understanding the msci all country world index acwi investors can diversify their portfolio holdings in many ways a portfolio manager or investor can purchase a range of individual stocks that have a low or negative correlation with each other on the other hand a less costly and more efficient way to invest might be to own etfs replicating the performance of an index such as the dow jones industrial average djia or the s p 500 index for investors who also want to have exposure to global stocks the msci acwi index can be a good option institutional investors including those who manage mutual funds and pension funds can use the msci acwi as a benchmark to measure the performance of their portfolios and a guide to geographical diversification individual investors can also use the acwi as a benchmark to compare which funds have the best risk adjusted returns as of dec 29 2023 the countries representing the highest allocation for the msci acwi index are the u s 62 57 japan 5 4 china 3 62 the united kingdom 3 55 and france 2 9 below are the weightings for each sector 3below are the top 10 holdings by their portfolio weighting within the index as of dec 29 2023 3the top 10 holdings represent 18 36 of the weighting for the index 3