Russian Stocks Pulled from Major Indexes

Russian stocks are being yanked from the DJI and S&P 500
before trading next Wednesday

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, index powerhouse S&P Dow Jones Indices said Friday that all equities listed and or located in Russia will be removed from its benchmarks, further cutting the country off from the rest of the global economy.

The move will effectively strip Russia of its “emerging market” economic status.

S&P Dow Jones Indices said the elimination, which takes effect before the market opens next Wednesday, also affects Russian American depositary receipts (ADRs).

The company, which manages the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500, also announced that Russia will be declassified as an emerging market and put in a separate category.

Russian military assaulted Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine early Friday morning, igniting a fire at a nearby training site.

The attack was labelled a war crime by the US embassy in Kyiv.

Trading in three Russian ETFs — Franklin FTSE Russia ETF (FLRU), iShares MSCI Russia ETF (ERUS), and Direxion Daily Russia Bull 2X Shares — was suspended by the NYSE earlier Friday (RUSL). The halts were attributed to “regulatory concerns,” according to the exchange.

Since the geopolitical tensions erupted, exchange-traded funds that monitor Russian markets have been in a spiral. After losing 27.9% on Monday, the iShares MSCI Russia ETF fell 33.4 percent on Tuesday, its worst day since the fund’s launch in 2010.

In the meantime, the VanEck Russia ETF finished February with a loss of 54.9 percent, its worst month ever.