S&P 500 Returns by Sector

The year is finally over.  Overall, 2012 was great for the stock market after a dismal 2011.  Below is the performance data from Standards & Poor for the S&P 2012 Year performance, broken out by sector:

Index Name	Adjusted Market Cap ($Million)	Index Level	Performance
			1 Day	MTD	QTD	YTD
TOTAL RETURNS
S&P 500 (TR)	N/A	2,504.44	1.69%	.91%	-.38%	16%
PRICE RETURNS
S&P 500	12,742,436.25	1,426.19	1.69%	.71%	-1.01%	13.41%
PRICE RETURNS BY SECTOR
Energy	1,400,015.46	532.96	2.09%	.52%	-3.31%	2.33%
Materials	461,613.38	237.62	2.02%	2.89%	2.04%	12.24%
Industrials	1,290,086.56	328.75	1.87%	2.26%	2.96%	12.46%
Cons Disc	1,464,901.61	376.06	2%	.24%	1.57%	21.87%
Cons Staples	1,352,391.20	360.78	1.11%	-2.54%	-2.48%	7.52%
Health Care	1,530,449.35	462.95	1.22%	-.38%	-.5%	15.19%
Financials	1,989,102.90	221.24	1.39%	4.56%	5.32%	26.26%
Info Tech	2,426,353.68	463.82	2.16%	-.12%	-6.21%	13.15%
Telecom Svc	389,865.37	146.04	1.14%	-1.09%	-7.06%	12.5%
Utilities	437,656.73	177.66	1.39%	-.24%	-3.91%	-2.91%

As you can see, total return including dividends was a sweet 16% while non-div return was still a nice 13.41%.  The two big winning sectors for the year: Financials at 26.26% and Consumer Discretionary (really? in such a depressed economy?) at 21.87%.


There was only one loser: Utilities at -2.91%.  This can be seen as more of a correction as 2011 was great for the Utilities and dividend sector.  Energy was also a big loser at 2.33%.  If the trend plays out that the poor performer becomes better next year, energy may be an interesting play for 2013.

Sector Breakdown

 (as of 31-Dec-2012)