XEQT Holdings: What You Actually Own

The fund-of-funds structure

XEQT does not hold 8,400 stocks directly. It holds four underlying iShares ETFs, each of which holds hundreds or thousands of individual stocks. One purchase, one fee, one rebalancing mechanism.

Think of XEQT as a container. Inside are four smaller containers, each representing a different region of the global economy. When you buy XEQT, you buy all four simultaneously in specific proportions that BlackRock maintains and rebalances automatically. You pay 0.20% all-in, and that covers everything. For a detailed look at what that fee actually costs over 30 years, see the XEQT MER breakdown.

The four building blocks

XIC: The Canadian sleeve (~27%)

XIC tracks the S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index, which includes virtually every significant company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Heavy exposure to Canadian banks (Royal Bank, TD, BNS, BMO, CIBC), major resource companies like Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor, and Nutrien, and technology leaders like Shopify. No single company can exceed 10% of the index.

ITOT / XTOT: The US sleeve (~42%)

The largest allocation. Tracks the total US stock market: not just the S&P 500 but every publicly traded US company including mid-caps and small-caps. Roughly 3,500 companies. XTOT (launched May 2025) is a Canadian-listed wrapper around ITOT providing identical exposure.

XEF: International developed (~25%)

Tracks the MSCI EAFE IMI Index, covering equity markets in Europe, Australasia, and the Far East. Japan is the largest single country, followed by the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Australia. Toyota, Nestle, LVMH, ASML, and major European banks all feature here.

XEC: Emerging markets (~5%)

Tracks the MSCI Emerging Markets IMI Index. High-growth economies including India, China, Brazil, Taiwan, South Korea, and Mexico. The 5% allocation reflects the higher risk profile of emerging market equities and the conservative construction philosophy of XEQT. If you are wondering whether that 5% is too much or too little, that question is addressed directly in our emerging markets guide.

Your top 10 stocks

While XEQT holds 8,400+ companies, the world's largest firms by market capitalization naturally dominate. These are your largest individual exposures across all four underlying ETFs:

Country breakdown

Within the four ETF building blocks, your exposure spans the globe. The 15 largest country exposures, with a note on Canada's deliberate overweight relative to its ~3% share of global market cap:

Sector composition

XEQT's sector allocation mirrors the actual composition of global stock markets. Technology and financial services together account for over 40%. This is not a bet by BlackRock. It is the market reflecting the real-world dominance of those industries.

This broad sector coverage is one of the compelling arguments for holding XEQT rather than just an S&P 500 fund. The international and Canadian sleeves add significant financials, materials, and energy exposure that you would underweight holding only US stocks.

Does XEQT hold any bonds?

No. XEQT is a 100% equity fund. No bonds, no cash equivalents, no fixed income of any kind. This makes XEQT higher risk than XGRO (80/20) or XBAL (60/40), but also higher potential long-run return.

The absence of bonds is intentional. For investors with long time horizons, bonds historically drag on returns more than they help. For a 30-year investment, the additional long-run return from 100% equities more than compensates for the additional volatility. That logic breaks down as you approach the time you need the money.

How often do the holdings change?

The underlying ETFs rebalance and reconstitute on their own schedules (typically quarterly for index additions and removals, and continuously via market cap movements as stock prices change). XEQT itself is continuously monitored and rebalanced by BlackRock as needed to maintain its target geographic allocations. You do nothing. All of this is covered by the 0.20% MER you are already paying.