Russell Launches Big-Game Benchmark

April 14, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Russell Investment Group has created a new index: the Russell Top 50, a benchmark of mega-cap stocks.

The index represents the 50 top American companies by market capitalization – almost 40% of the total US market, according to a release from the company. Real-time performance data will be available at www.russell.com .

“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, in the news release. “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.” 

Russell indices can not be directly invested in; however, more than $2.5 trillion is benchmarked against its indices.

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