S&P Dow Jones removes Russian stocks from indexes, stripping the country of its emerging market status
An employee looks at a stock price index chart showing stock prices falling on an electronic information screen at the headquarters of the Micex-RTS Moscow Exchange.
Andrey Rudakov | Bloomberg | beautiful pictures
S&P giant Dow Jones Indices said Friday that it will remove all stocks listed and/or domiciled in Russia from its benchmarks due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. separate the country from the global economy.
The removal, which goes into effect before opening next Wednesday, also affects Russian-American depository receipts (ADRs), S&P Dow Jones Indices said.
The company, which holds the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500, also said it would classify Russia as an emerging market and classify it as an independent group.
The move to like Russian forces attack Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was in Ukraine early Friday morning, prompting a fire to break out at an adjoining training facility. The US Embassy in Kyiv called the attack a war crime.
Earlier on Friday, the NYSE halted trading of three Russian ETFs – Franklin FTSE Russia ETF (FLRU), iShares MSCI Russia ETF (ERUS) and Direxion Daily Russia Bull 2X Shares (RUSL). The exchange cited “regulatory concerns” for these pauses.
Russian stocks have fallen on hard times since geopolitical tensions escalated. The iShares MSCI Russia ETF down 33.4% on the worst day on Tuesday since the fund’s founding in 2010 and after losing 27.9% on Monday.
Meanwhile, shares of VanEck Russia ETF ended February down 54.9%, the worst end of the month ever.
