Russell Adds 43 Canadian Stocks to Global Index

TORONTO, Jul 07 (MARKET WIRE) --
Russell Investments has added 43 Canadian companies to the Russell Global
Index as part of an annual process to maintain the most accurate equity
benchmarks. As a result, the Russell Canada Index now comprises 407
stocks that represent more than US$1.2 trillion in market capitalization.
Though this figure has declined from US$1.9 trillion at this time last
year, Canada still ranks as the seventh largest market in terms of
relative weight in the Russell Global Index.

The list of Canadian stocks in the global Index is at
http://www.russell.com/Indexes/membership/default.asp.

The recently completed annual index reconstitution process also found a
significant shift for Canada in terms of style designation from value to
growth that is consistent with the general movement to a more
growth-dominated global index. Currently the Canadian equity market
appears as 73% growth and 27% value, while at this point last year it was
59% growth and 41% value.

"It is not surprising that we are seeing a global trend toward growth as a
result of the economic difficulties of 2008," said Sadiq Adatia, Chief
Investment Officer for Russell Canada. "Most earnings numbers have come
down significantly and the expectation going forward is much better, which
makes a lot of stocks appear more growth-oriented."

Adatia pointed to the significant drop in weight of the Energy sector as
the outcome of the decreased global demand for oil due to the slowing
economy. "Despite the drop in oil prices over the past year, we have
recently seen a strong resurgence in the Energy sector so the momentum is
quite positive," he said.

Some other key points about the newly reconstituted Russell Canada
Index
include:

-- The largest sector by weight is financial services (30%) followed
closely by energy (27.5%) and Materials and Processing (22%).
-- The energy sector dropped 12.7% in sector weight from this point last
year, declining about double the loss for the global index.
-- Of the 89 Canadian firms deleted from the global index, 25 were energy
stocks and 28 were materials & processing firms.
-- The Russell Canada Index reflected a year-to-date gain of 28.4%
through June 26, while the U.S. broad-market Russell 3000 Index showed a
gain of 4.2% for the same period.

While the past year was tough on markets worldwide, Canada fared
relatively well compared to some other countries in the global index.
"Canadian banks held up well as result of better balance sheets and much
lower loan loss provisions. This kept the confidence in the banking
system much higher than in our U.S. counterparts," said Adatia. "Canada
also benefited from the performance of commodities in 2009 and the
resurgence in the Technology sector, particularly in Research in Motion."

Russell's index reconstitution process is followed closely by many
investors because $4 trillion in assets are benchmarked against them, and
they account for an industry-leading 63.3% of institutional benchmarked
products. Membership in Russell's equity indexes -- widely used as
benchmarks for both passive and active investment strategies -- is
determined by objective rules. Accurate benchmarks are an integral part of
Russell's ongoing process to monitor more than 8,000 investment manager
products worldwide for its $136 billion active investment management
business.

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