Growth Stocks Gain Ground in September
 October 2, 2006 — The Russell 1000® Growth Index outperformed its value counterpart for the second consecutive month in September. The Russell 1000 Growth gained 2.75% for the month, while the Russell 1000® Value Index added 1.99%.
Despite the past two months, the Russell 1000 Value continues to lead its growth counterpart by 10.2 percentage points in 2006 with a year-to-date gain of 13.2%.
"Even with two months of relatively good performance for the Russell 1000 Growth, the index trails its value counterpart for the third quarter and by a wider margin for 2006," said Dennis Jensen, senior manager research.
He added that the recent two-month tilt toward growth continues to be driven by sector performance, particularly for technology stocks, not necessarily a wide-spread preference for growth stocks.
Overall, the broad-market Russell 3000® Index reflected a 2.2% gain for September as every market segment measured by Russell indexes turned in a positive performance. The Russell Top 200® Growth Index led all other indexes for the month with a 2.95% gain. By contrast, Russell's three micro-cap indexes and the small-cap Russell 2000® Index each reflected a gain of less than 1%.
"The smallest companies in the U.S. market, particularly the smallest growth companies, provided investors with minimal returns in September," Jensen said.
The Russell Microcap™ Growth Index, which gained only 0.07% in September, actually turned in a negative performance for the third quarter, dipping 2.4%.
While year-to-date performance for all 26 indexes remains positive, five small-cap and microcap indexes show a negative return for the quarter. The Russell 2000 remains slightly ahead of the large-cap Russell 1000 for the year, though it trailed in the third quarter by 4.62 percentage points.
Among the 12 sectors in the Russell 3000, a solid performance for the technology (4.1%) and consumer discretionary (5.6%) sectors helped offset losses in the integrated oils (-1.96%) and other energy (-7.79%) sectors.
In the Russell 1000, 65% of the stocks gained value in September and 64 surged more than 20% for the month. The top-performing stock was First Marblehead Corp. (37.8%), while seven of the top 20 performing large-cap stocks are in the consumer discretionary sector.
In the Russell 2000, 54 stocks gained more than 20% for the month with Align Technology (82.1%) and Talk America (63.8%) leading the index. Twelve of the top 30 performing stocks are in the consumer discretionary sector with Systemax (39.9%), Liquidity Services (32.3%) and Stein Mart (28.6%) leading the sector.
For additional performance figures on Russell's indexes and the user-friendly Russell index returns calculator, please visit: www.russell.com/Indexes.
| RUSSELL INDEXES TOTAL RETURNS (%) |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
September |
|
3Q06 |
| Russell 3000® Index |
|
2.24% |
|
4.64% |
| Russell 1000® Index |
|
2.37% |
|
5.06% |
| Russell 2000® Index |
|
0.83% |
|
0.44% |
| Russell 2500™ Index |
|
1.22% |
|
0.52% |
| Russell Midcap® Index |
|
1.81% |
|
2.11% |
| Russell Top 200® Index |
|
2.60% |
|
6.29% |
| Russell Top 50® Index |
|
2.69% |
|
8.37% |
| Russell Microcap™ Index |
|
0.39% |
|
-0.67% |
| Russell 3000® Value Index |
|
1.90% |
|
5.88% |
| Russell 3000® Growth Index |
|
2.57% |
|
3.44% |
| Russell 1000® Value Index |
|
1.99% |
|
6.22% |
| Russell 1000® Growth Index |
|
2.75% |
|
3.94% |
| Russell 2000® Value Index |
|
0.98% |
|
2.55% |
| Russell 2000® Growth Index |
|
0.68% |
|
-1.76% |
| Russell 2500™ Value Index |
|
1.02% |
|
2.27% |
| Russell 2500™ Growth Index |
|
1.42% |
|
-1.20% |
| Russell Midcap® Value Index |
|
1.28% |
|
3.53% |
| Russell Midcap® Growth Index |
|
2.28% |
|
-2.43% |
| Russell Top 200® Value Index |
|
2.26% |
|
7.26% |
| Russell Top 200® Growth Index |
|
2.95% |
|
5.31% |
September 2006
SECTOR PERFORMANCE |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Russell 1000 |
|
Russell 2000 |
| Technology |
|
4.41% |
|
1% |
| Health Care |
|
1.26% |
|
-1.27% |
| Consumer Discretionary & Services |
|
5.83% |
|
3.94% |
| Consumer Staples |
|
-1.35% |
|
-0.89% |
| Integrated Oils |
|
-1.97% |
|
0.24% |
| Other Energy |
|
-7.60% |
|
-9.20% |
| Materials & Processing |
|
-0.26% |
|
0.45% |
| Producer Durables |
|
2.86% |
|
1.31% |
| Autos & Transportation |
|
4.82% |
|
1.27% |
| Financial Services |
|
3.95% |
|
1.58% |
| Utilities |
|
1.30% |
|
0.00% |
About Russell: Russell Investment Group, a global leader in multi-manager investing, provides investment products and services in 44 countries. Russell manages more than $171 billion in assets and advises clients worldwide representing more than $2.4 trillion. Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual and is headquartered in Tacoma, Wash., with additional offices in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Sydney, Singapore, Auckland and Tokyo.
Russell employs its indexes to objectively evaluate investment managers for multi-manager funds and other investment services. More than $3.8 trillion in assets are benchmarked to the industry-leading Russell indexes.
Russell Investment Group, a Washington, USA corporation, operates through subsidiaries worldwide. Russell Investment Group is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.
Russell Investment Group is the owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights related to its indexes.
Russell's indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly.
RC# 4505
|
