Pension funds and consultants are discussing the problem of holding too high a stake in a single stock, a problem that has been of particular concern since the merger of BP and Amoco.

Everybody agrees that the solution is to diversify, but there are various theories on how to achieve this. The advocates of a multinational index, such as Barclays Global Investors and Bacon & Woodrow, argue that the world is not sufficiently global to be looked at in global sectors, and that country selection is clearly out of date.