FTSE Group, the award winning global index provider, in conjunction with the London Stock Exchange yesterday announced details of a new index covering Russian securities trading on the Exchange's International Order Book (IOB). The FTSE Russian IOB Index is a market capitalisation weighted index designed to measure the performance of the ten biggest and most liquid Russian Depositary Receipts on a real time basis.
The introduction of the index reflects growing institutional demand for exposure to one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the world, while the IOB eases the problems and inefficiencies normally associated with investment in developing markets. The index will be suitable for the creation of new financial products.
Martin Graham, Director of Markets at the London Stock Exchange, said: “With Gazprom, one of the leading constituents of the new index, now reaching its tenth year of listing on the Exchange, Russian Depositary Receipts on the IOB have become a mature and liquid market. Trading in Russian IOB securities so far this year has reached $164.2 billion, an increase of over 200 per cent on the value traded during the same period last year. The FTSE Russia IOB index will provide the growing pool of IOB participants with more sophisticated benchmarking to manage their investments. ”
Paul Grimes, Chief Operating Officer, FTSE Group, said: “FTSE is committed to offering investors a complete suite of index products to measure and analyse all facets of the investment landscape. The introduction of the index reflects growing interest in the Russian Depository Receipt market on the IOB.”
Calculation of the FTSE Russia IOB Series started on 23 October, in US dollars. The index constituents at launch are; OAO Gazprom, Lukoil (OAO), Surgutneftegaz, MMC Norilsk Nickel, Unified Energy Systems of Russia, OJSC OC Rosneft, OAO Novatek, Sistema JFSC, OJSC Novolipetsk Steel and Evraz group. All Russian DRs trading on the International Order Book will be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE Russia IOB Index. Full index details and ground rules are available at www.ftse.com/iob.
