Panellists from the index industry highlighted the growing demand from the defence sector as a theme and a shift in ESG's position in indices at the SRP Europe 2026 conference, held in London on 17 March.

Defence and sovereignty underlying sectors have been driving the European bourse’s momentum in 2025, according to Tim Rohkemper (pictured), head of indices at Euronext, who kicked off the “Thematic Universe I: Traditional” panel discussion.

We see a trend evolving that captures sovereignty in data intelligence property - Tim Rohkemper, Euronext

“Anything around quickly translating the current geopolitical and macroeconomic events, which we observe across the pond, and taking advantage of the strong momentum shift from US equities to European equities has been the absolute driver of our success in 2025,” Rohkemper said.

This year, the defence sovereignty theme has become even more “nuanced,” he pointed out.

“Traditional defence sovereignty was very much focused on the supply chain. We see a trend evolving that captures sovereignty in data intelligence property, such as, ‘Can we protect our data infrastructure?’” he said, who sees sovereignty and European autonomy will remain in focus in 2026.

From left to right: Tim Rohkemper, Euronext and Quentin Houssemand, Morningstar Indexes

Quentin Houssemand, director of derivatives products sales at Morningstar Indexes, echoed Rohkemper's mention of a shift in US-to-Europe market exposure last year, noting that multi-sector with a Eurozone focus was also last year’s overarching theme at his firm and investors currently eye the defence sector.

Houssemand highlighted that walking into 2026, demand for gold and silver layers was noticeable at Morningstar Indexes.

The higher demand for precious metals and mining was also recorded at STOXX this year so far, according to Armelle Loeb, head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea) sell-side index and ESG sales.

While thematics had seen success on the exchange-traded fund front, STOXX recorded higher demand from the benchmark-focused market access products in the structured products space last year, Loeb said.

From left to right: Quentin Houssemand, Morningstar Indexes and Armelle Loeb, STOXX

“For me, 2025 has been the year of going back to benchmarks – most likely because of the interest rate levels,” she said.

The panellists stressed the importance of ESG factors in investment via the indices space – and where it is positioned in the category.

“Some of our largest trades last year, [which stand around] several billion [euros] in 2025, were on the EU Climate Transition Benchmark (CTB) and EU Paris-aligned Benchmark (PAB), so [ESG] clearly remain very, very relevant to the investor community,” said Euronext’s Rohkemper.

He sees ESG becoming a base requirement for many distributions, rather than a thematic play. “Many years ago, ESG was the sole driver of the investment decision and that is now based on analysing policies. It is utilised across strategies,” he added.

STOXX’s Loeb also noticed this trend, saying the ESG-related element has pivoted from a theme years ago to now “every index that we are including, [including] in the benchmarks.”

From left to right: Tim Rohkemper, Euronext; Quentin Houssemand, Morningstar Indexes; and Armelle Loeb, STOXX

Do you have a confidential story, tip or comment you’d like to share? Contact Us | SRP (structuredretailproducts.com)