Mexican Wave

FEMSA brewery is the big drinks mover, with the share price soaring 24.9%

Our db index this month highlights the main company improvers by country on the MSCI AC World Beverages index.
Of the US drinks companies listed, Constellation Brands has performed best over the given period (December 17 2005 to February 17 2006).

This should come as a relief to the board and shareholders, who had a stormy time of it toward the end of last year between attempted and thwarted takeover bids.

Mexico’s FEMSA United brewery was the overall star performer, with the share price up a whopping 24.9% over the
two-month period.

MSCI AC World Beverages, MSCI AC World Hotels Restaurants and Leisure and MSCI AC World Food Preoducts Indices

Methodology:
MSCI builds its indices from the industry level up by classifying securities by country of domicile; determining a Foreign Inclusion Factor (FIF) for each security; classifying securities according to the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®) into: Sectors (10), Industry Groups (24), Industries (62) and Sub-Industries (132); screening securities for size and liquidity; and finally, initiating security selection process to target 85% free float-adjusted market capitalisation for each industry group, within each country.

The graph tracks the progress of the MSCI World Beverage index against the World Hotel Restaurant & Leisure (WHRL) and World Food Product indices over the past 12 months. The WHRL index suffered the most, posting drops at the end of April, start of September and start of November 2005, rising to its high point in mid-February 2006.

While it is clear these three sectors have a close relationship, the good news is that the WHRL slumps have not affected the World Beverage index, which continues to perform well.  db  April 2006