Short Takes: John Nuveen Opens 10 Investment Trusts

John Nuveen & Co. recently opened 10 unit investment trusts tied to business sectors and targeting financial advisers who want to fill gaps in their clients' portfolios.

Brokerage units of 20 banks have agreed to offer the Nuveen Sector Portfolios and the Nuveen Dow Jones Sector Portfolios, which require an initial investment of at least $1,000.

Five portfolios mirror industry groups in the Dow Jones industrial average: energy, financial services, pharmaceutical, precious metals, and technology.

The others focus on communications, consumer electronics, Internet, retail, and semiconductor stocks. These unit investment trusts are meant for investors who want to specialize their portfolios rather than buy shares of broader funds.

"A lot of brokers like to recommend individual stocks or baskets of stocks to clients," said William Adams, a managing director at Chicago- based Nuveen. "It's a defined portfolio, so they can actually look at what they're buying."

Fifteen to 25 large-cap stocks are included in each portfolio, which generally has a five-year maturity. Nuveen manages more than $63 billion of assets in mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, separate accounts, and unit investment trusts.

- Katharine Fraser

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