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New home sales results came in at 610,000, 8.9% higher than a year ago, and lifting home-building stocks.

But two exchange-traded funds tracking the industry are reacting very differently to the data. The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) has risen 0.54% while the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) has fallen 0.36%.

That's because the two track indexes that were constructed very differently. The iShares ETF tracks a market-cap weighted index of companies in the home building space as well as those that supply materials for construction. The SPDR ETF tracks an equal-weighted index that defines the home building industry more broadly and has a bigger slug of home furnishing companies. Photo by ROBERT KWIATEK/AFP/Getty Images

Top holdings in the iShares ETF include D.R. Horton (DHI), Lennar (LEN), NVR (NVR), PulteGroup (PHM), and Toll Brothers (TOL) -- all stocks that have been gaining on the better-than-expected new home sales data.

Toll Brothers and PulteGroup are also top holdings in the SPDR ETF, but so are Whirlpool (WHR), and Home Depot  (HD), which have been falling so far on Friday.

Different holdings garner different performance results. The iShares ETF has gained more than 22% so far this year, outpacing the MSCI ACWI's 11.7% and 98% of consumer cyclical peer funds. Meanwhile the SPDR ETF has risen just over 14%.

That's why investors should pay close attention to index construction rather than picking up an ETF just based on its label. 2 ETFs Reacting Very Differently to New Home Sales Data

New home sales results came in at 610,000, 8.


