Russell Appeals to Large-Cap Managers

Russell Investment Group has launched the Russell Top 50, an index that tracks the 50 largest U.S. stocks based on market capitalization. The move, which came yesterday, is likely to attract the attention of large-cap managers.

"The largest-cap companies of the market have been persistently underweighted by many active investment managers for years," said Lori Richards, senior product manager for Russell Indexes. "This could result in many funds underperforming if large-cap stocks regain their market leadership position. With the Russell Top 50, though, managers have another tool to evaluate whether their bias has caused them to underweight the largest companies."

The Russell Top 50 includes companies that make up 40% of the U.S. market and its launch adds to the 22 segments of the U.S. market which Russell provides daily index performance data for, including the large-cap Russell 1000 Index, small-cap Russell 2000 Index and broad-market Russell 3000 Index.