Do we need a Scottish index tracker?

The prospect of Scottish independence raises a number of issues, one of which would be the merits of a passive fund to track Scottish companies.

Working on the premise that existing listed Scottish companies (as defined by the Scotsman’s Scottish Share index) retain their domicile in Scotland post-independence, what would the index look like?  Does it represent an attractive investment proposition and a means of gaining exposure to traditional strengths such as whisky, financial services, and the energy sector? From the outset, the index, calculated using market capitalisation and valued at £64bn, would suffer from overexposure to a limited number of companies because the universe of 33 stocks is quite small.  Royal Bank of...