Russell Investment Group has launched the Russell Top 50 Index, a benchmark for mega-cap stocks. This index includes the 50 largest U.S. companies based on market capitalization, which represents approximately 40% of the U.S. market, and is designed as an objective tool to accurately track the performance of this segment.
Russell has tracked the top 50 U.S. stocks as an index since 1979 for internal use, and the firm is now providing all investors with real-time performance figures for the index as well historical data.
“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. “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.”