June 30, 2010
--- Russell Investments has completed the annual realignment of the Russell Global Index and added 1,190 stocks to the equity benchmark. ---
With 10,590 stocks from 61 countries, the Russell Global Index currently shows a total market capitalization of $40.8 trillion, which is an increase of 17% from $34.8 trillion at this time in 2009. The newly reconstituted Russell Global Index also shows a market capitalization range of $283.1 billion to $112 million (compared to $348 billion to $78 million at this time last year), and a median market capitalization of $21 billion, up from $20.5 billion at this time last year, Russell said.
The list of additions for the global index included 45 initial public offerings that came to market during the second quarter, substantially more than the 14 IPOs added at this time in 2009.
A stock’s addition to the Russell Global Index, which covers 98% of the investable global market, means automatic inclusion into several sub-component indexes. For example, a small-cap stock in China also is added to the Russell Emerging Markets Index, Russell Asia Pacific Index and Russell Global Small Cap Index, among others, as well as the related value or growth style indexes.
Sectors with the largest weighting in the newly realigned index are financial services (22%), technology (11.7%), producer durables (11.2%), consumer discretionary (11.2%) and energy (10.3%). Among the 1,190 additions, the materials & processing sector led with 199 stocks on the list. It was followed closely by financial services (182) and technology (179).