Calculating asset returns by portfolio weights

Question

I have a securities portfolio (Fixed Income) and corresponding information regarding the single issues weights (in %) in the portfolio, sector identifiers (i.e. Industrial, Retail) and Total Return quotes %) on a month-to-date basis (MTD). It looks something like this

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Sid____________Sector__________Weight_____Total Return MTD XS121452838____Industrial______0.0012_____1.25 XS121452816____Retail__________0.0012_____2.25 XS121452822____Retail__________0.0012_____3.25 XS121452811____Utilities_______0.0012_____4.25 XS121452812____Healthcare______0.0012_____-2.21

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How do I calculate sector Total Return? i.e. the total return of all utilities companies in the portfolio (taking their respective weights in this sub-segment into consideration - Portfolio Utilities holdings).

Answer 1

I have added an illustration to aid Ross's Answer for clarity.

Hope the image is legible.

Answer 2

You can sort out all the securities that are in the Utilities sector and find their weighting within the sector. Assuming the weighting you have is relative to the total portfolio, that just needs dividing by the weight of the sector. Then you can do a weighted average of the MTD returns of those securities.