FUND DESCRIPTION: SPDR Portfolio World ex-US ETF, formerly SPDR S&P World ex-US ETF, is an exchange-traded index fund or Index ETF which is a separate investment portfolio of the SPDR Index Shares Fund, an investment management company. INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE: The SPDR Portfolio World ex-US ETF seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the total return performance of S&P Developed Ex-U.S. BMI Index. INDEX DESCRIPTION: The S&P Developed Ex-U.S. BMI Index is a market capitalization weighted index designed to define and measure the investable universe of publicly traded companies domiciled in developed countries outside the United States. The Index component securities are a subset, based on region, of component securities included in the S&P BMI Global Equity Index. The Global Equity Index is a comprehensive, float-weighted, rules-based benchmark that is readily divisible and customizable. A country will be eligible for inclusion in the Global Equity Index if it has a float-adjusted market capitalization of $1 billion or more and its market capitalization constitutes at least 40 basis points in either a developed or emerging market. All publicly listed companies with float-adjusted market capitalization of a minimum of $100 million and at least $50 million annual trading volume are included for each country. All stocks are weighted proportionate to their float-adjusted market capitalization and the Index is rebalanced annually. The Index is “float adjusted”, meaning that only those shares publicly available to investors are included in the Index calculation. Each individual stock is capped at a maximum of 24% of index weight and changes in capping are monitored on the quarterly rebalancing dates. Countries covered in the Index have historically included, among others, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the
United Kingdom. As of December 31, 2009, the Index was comprised of 4,472 securities. FUND STRATEGY: Under normal market conditions, the Fund generally invests substantially all, but at least 90%, of its total assets in the securities comprising the Index. In addition, the Fund may invest in securities that are not included in the Index, futures, options, swap contracts and other derivatives, cash and cash equivalents or money market instruments, such as repurchase agreements and money market funds. The Fund uses a passive management, indexing investment approach, and sampling methodology designed to track the total return performance of the Index. The Fund does not intend to purchase all of the securities in the Index, but rather will utilize a sampling methodology in seeking the Fund's objective by purchasing a subset of the securities in the Index in an effort to hold a portfolio of securities with generally the same risk and return characteristics of the Index. The quantity of holdings in the Fund will be based on a number of factors, including asset size of the Fund. The Fund reserves the right to hold as many securities as it believes necessary to achieve the Fund's investment objective. FUND MANAGEMENT: SSgA FM serves as the investment adviser to the Fund, subject to the supervision of the Board, is responsible for the investment management of the Fund.
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