MOSCOW, April 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Industrial Leaders Index (RUXX) will be presented to foreign investors at the New York Stock Exchange April 24.
The presentation will be made as part of Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin’s meeting with NYSE directors.
In the course of his visit the minister intends to tell NYSE representatives about Russia’s investment climate and new financial market indicators, in particular the RUXX Index.
“Investors are showing obvious interest in Russia,” Kudrin will say in his speech. “The country’s macroeconomic situation has stabilized, and the value of Russian assets keeps growing.”
The RUXX index is a useful indicator for foreign investors, says David Griffiths, Senior Managing Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa Region of the New York Stock Exchange, Inc.: “It’s a constructive move and indeed the Russian companies that are on foreign exchanges are among the most prominent and will be the ones that will make up a large portion of portfolios invested in Russia.”
Andrei Movchan, the president of Renaissance Capital Asset Management and a member of the RUXX Index expert council, said the index could help foreigners, especially individuals, become interested in the Russian equity market.
He said previously, the Western market was quite happy with the RTS Index, but it was “suitable for aggressive Western investors who are not afraid to take risks and who invest even in those countries where bears roam the streets of capital cities.”
“But now the developed world is apparently changing its opinion, which is related not so much to the rising value of Russian securities as to the change in the country’s situation overall,” Movchan said.
He said the use of the index for commercial operations could bring in considerable cash flows.
According to Cameron Brandt, senior analyst with Emerging Portfolio Fund Research, although the RUXX Index was introduced only recently, financial circles were closely watching it.
The Russian Industrial Leaders Index (RUXX) has been calculated in U.S. dollars since January 1, 2006, and has been available for all global trading systems since February 1 this year. It has an initial base of 500 points.
RUXX is a composite economic index of Russian companies with financial instruments (shares and depository receipts) placed on major world trading floors, including the New York Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and AMEX.
The index includes 17 Russian companies listed abroad: Tatneft (NYSE, LSE), MTS (NYSE), Rostelecom (NYSE, LSE), VimpelCom (NYSE), Wimm-Bill-Dann (NYSE), Mechel (NYSE), Gazprom (LSE), LUKoil (LSE), Novatek (LSE), AFK Sistema (LSE), Golden Telecom (Nasdaq), Rambler Media Group (LSE), Norilsk Nickel (LSE, Nasdaq), Mosenergo (LSE, NYSE), Novolipetsk Steel (LSE), Unified Energy System (LSE, NYSE), and Surgutneftegas (LSE).
The RUXX Index was launched by Press Release Group, a New York-based communications company, and RIA Novosti. It is calculated and disseminated by Dow Jones & Company.
In March, the RUXX index went up 3.5%.
The index is based on companies' weight depending on their market capitalization. The higher the market capitalization, the larger the company's share in the index, with a weight cap of 20% for each company. Market capitalization and share weights in the index are changed quarterly.
The index is published daily at 05.55 p.m. EST by the Dow Jones ITC 2.1 data feed system and the Chicago Board of Trade.
