Barclays’ Social Fund Excludes Tobacco Stocks

San Francisco-based Barclays Global Investors, which manages assets of about $1.3 trillion, has launched its first exchange-traded fund for socially responsible investors.

The iShares KLD Select Social Index Fund will exclude only tobacco stocks but will reduce its investment in other firms with “lower social and environmental performance.”

ETFs are baskets of stocks or other securities that trade on exchanges like individual stocks.