8th March 2011: Recent political turmoil in the Gulf Cooperation Council region has had a negative impact on stocks in all sectors of the Russell GCC Index, except for Energy. The Energy sector shows a year-to-date gain of 5.4% through 4 March, while six of the nine sectors overall reflect double-digit losses with the Technology sector, for example, down 23.6%

While the Energy sector continues to outperform other sectors for 2011, the largest sector in the Russell GCC Index remains Financial Services, which represents about 55% of the index.

 Sectors:

Russell GCC Index

YTD Sector Returns

through March 4, 2011

Sector Weights:

February  2011

Consumer Discretionary

-9.4%

1.6%

Consumer Staples

-14.1%

0.6%

Energy

5.4%

6.7%

Financial Services

-10.8%

54.6%

Health Care

-0.5%

0.2%

Materials & Processing

-11.5%

8.7%

Producer Durables

-17.7%

8.3%

Technology

-23.6%

0.02%

Utilities

-11%

19.3%


The negative returns across the region year-to-date in 2011 appear evenly dispersed in the five countries that comprise the Russell GCC Index. Reversing positive returns for 2010, these country indexes reflect losses that range from -7.2% for the Russell Oman Index to -11.5% for the Russell Qatar Index.

 

Russell Index

YTD Index Returns

through March 4, 2011

Index  Returns:

2010 calendar year

Russell UAE Index


-10.4%

2.6%

Russell Bahrain Index

-10.6%

35.5%

Russell Kuwait Index

-10.7%

28%

Russell Qatar Index

-11.5%

29.9%

Russell Oman Index

-7.2%

13.2%


"Index returns for the first part of 2011 show the importance of diversification in global investing. Even when the big picture for stocks in the Middle East look negative we see positive signs in Energy," said Pascal Duval, executive managing director, EMEA. "Russell's in-depth research into investment manager behavior continues to show growing interest in stocks based in GCC countries, despite recent market turmoil.  Russell's comprehensive index methodology offers these investors the ability to derive the benefits of diversification within the region."

Duval added that Russell's index methodology includes GCC countries in the Russell Frontier Index, and details on that global index are available here: www.russell.com/Indexes/data/fact_sheets/Frontier/Russell_Frontier_Index.asp.

With clients in 44 countries, Russell combines global experience with expertise in equity index construction and manager evaluation to create world-class global investment tools. The Russell Global Index includes more than 10,000 securities in 61 countries and covers 98% of the investable global market. All securities in the benchmark are classified according to size, region, country and sector. Daily Returns for the main components are available here: http://www.russell.com/indexes/data/daily_total_returns_global.asp

Indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly. Returns represent past performance, are not a guarantee of future performance, and are not indicative of any specific investment.

Index returns in this piece are based on USD.

Russell Investment Group is a Washington, USA corporation, which operates through subsidiaries worldwide, including Russell Investments, and is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.

-Ends-

For Further Information:
Mary Khamasmieh
M: Communications
Mobile: +971 50 2731 753
Email: khamasmieh@mcomgroup

© Press Release 2011