FTSE Russell announced the 2019 schedule for the annual reconstitution of its Russell US Indexes.
The Russell annual index rebalance process, closely watched by market participants, is designed to capture and reflect market shifts from the past year to ensure the Russell US indexes continue to accurately reflect the US equity market. The final day of Russell Reconstitution, on June 28 this year, is typically one of the highest trading volume days of the year on the US equity markets.
Russell Reconstitution is an important annual event for the US equity market and a top priority for our global team. It is a critical process for our indexes, particularly the widely followed US large-cap Russell 1000 Index and US small-cap Russell 2000 Index, and the transparent rules based methodology used to maintain and reconstitute the Russell indexes is designed to ensure that the process runs smoothly for investors. When the Russell rebalance concludes in late June, the entire family of Russell US indexes will be recast to reflect changes in the US equity markets over the last year.
The 2019 Russell US Index reconstitution calendar is as follows:
May 10 – rank day – Russell US Index membership eligibility for 2019 reconstitution determined from constituent market capitalization at market close.
June 7 – preliminary US index add & delete lists posted to the FTSE Russell website after 6PM US eastern time.
June 14 & 21 – US index add & delete lists (reflecting any updates) posted to the FTSE Russell website after 6PM US eastern time.
June 28 – Russell Reconstitution is final after the close of the US equity markets.
July 1 – equity markets open with the newly reconstituted Russell US Indexes.
This year, FTSE Russell is fine tuning the US reconstitution process for even greater transparency:
Companies slated for addition to the indexes which have trading suspended during the 2019 reconstitution period will not be added regardless of whether trading resumes prior to June 28.
Companies which have had their trading suspended for 60 or more days before the start of reconstitution period on June 7 have until Friday, June 14 to resume trading or they will be removed from the indexes.
Qualifying equity offerings on the Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of the final week of the Russell reconstitution period will enter the indexes at this years reconstitution effective Monday, July 1. Equity offerings on Thursday or Friday of that week will not be eligible to enter at reconstitution.
FTSE Russell index expertise and products are used by institutional and retail investors globally and more than $16 trillion is currently benchmarked to its indexes, including $9 trillion benchmarked to the Russell US Equity Indexes*. A full summary of planned updates along with background information on Russell Reconstitution can be found on the reconstitution home page on ftserussell.com.
*Data as of December 31, 2017 as reported on April 2, 2018 by eVestment for institutional assets, Morningstar for retail mutual funds, insurance products, and ETFs, and additional passive assets directly collected by FTSE Russell. AUM data includes blended benchmarks and excludes futures and options. Passive assets directly collected by FTSE Russell have been removed from third party sources to prevent double counting. No assurances are given by FTSE Russell as to the accuracy of the data.
