National Bank today announced changes to its line-up of Blue Chip Notes. The new features are intended to meet the needs of investors looking to reduce their portfolio exposure to the Canadian market, which is heavily weighted in the energy, materials and financial services sectors.

The Canadian Blue Chip III Note now offers broader sector diversification by investing in health care and being underweighted in energy and materials versus the S&P/TSX composite index.

The holdings of the Global Blue Chip II Note have been reduced from 30 to 20 stocks so that the Note’s Canadian weighting more closely resembles Canadian representation in the MSCI World index. With only one Canadian security (5% of the portfolio), the Global Blue Chip II Note now better reflects Canadian stock market capitalization (3% to 4%) in relation to the benchmark index. The note is also more aligned with its benchmark index in terms of sector diversification.

The Euro-Pacific Blue Chip II Note has eight new securities, making its sector and geographic diversification similar to that of its benchmark, the MSCI-EAFE index.

The reference portfolio of each note series composed of 20 equally weighted securities (5% each). This weighting is reset with each new issue in order to maintain the initial diversification. No management fees apply to the Notes.

On sale between February 1 to March 2 with a minimum investment of $1,000, the note quality for RRSPs, RRIFs and RESPs. They can be sold before maturity under normal market conditions and subject to early trading charges.

The notes offer 100% principal protection and unlimited potential return at maturity.

The notes can be purchased at National Bank branches, from National Bank Financial, from National Bank Direct Brokerage, and through investment advisors and financial planners across Canada.