Russell Indexes set to welcome stocks from 39 states (Russell.com)

Russell Indexes set to welcome stocks from 39 states
Annual process reveals changing fortunes of financial services firms

Tacoma, WA — June 23, 2008 — California, New York and Texas dominate the list of 39 states with companies set for addition to the broad-market Russell 3000® Index when Russell's family of U.S. indexes are fully reconstituted after the equity markets close Friday. These stocks will replace other companies that didn't fare as well during a mostly negative year on Wall Street. Other states with the most companies set for inclusion include Massachusetts (16), New Jersey (15), Virginia (13), Pennsylvania (12), and Florida (11).

Similarly, two sectors lead the list of additions that includes 56 financial services firms and 52 health care companies. Those sectors are followed by technology (34), energy (29), producer durables (26) and consumer discretionary (24). However, the financial services sector also leads the list of companies set for removal from the Russell 3000. The list of deletions includes 47 financial services firms and 42 consumer discretionary firms.

Regarding industries, banks outside New York City (26), biotechnology research and production firms (19) and crude oil producers (16) rank high on the additions list. The list of deletions includes 18 banks, eight REITS and five casinos and gambling stocks.

"Index reconstitution objectively captures the changing fortunes of companies and industries in the U.S. equity market," said Lori Richards, client service director for Russell Indexes. "Our annual process provides investors with unbiased investment tools to track their 401k plans and other investments with the understanding that they truly reflect the investment opportunities in any given market segment."

The city with the largest number of firms on the list is Houston, Texas, which is home to 12 companies set to move into the Russell 3000.

The states with the largest disparity between additions and deletions are Texas (net increase of 17 companies), New Jersey (net increase of 13 companies), Virginia (net increase of 11 companies) Massachusetts (net increase of 10 companies) as well as Pennsylvania and Colorado (net increase of seven companies each).

Some states have more companies on the list of deletions than the list of additions, including Minnesota (net decrease of three) as well as Connecticut and Washington (net decrease of two each).

"The rotation of who's in and who's out shows the changing nature of U.S. equity markets," said Richards. "The additions list also reveals some interesting pockets of growth within the various states and sectors."

Most of the deletions from the Russell 3000 will drop into the Russell Microcap® Index.

Annual reconstitution of Russell U.S. and global indexes captures the investable universe of stocks as of May 31, ranking them by total market capitalization. On June 13, Russell posted its preliminary lists of companies set for addition to—or deletion from—the ranking of stocks that make up its U.S. equity indexes as well as the Russell Global Index. Final index membership remains in place for one year. The lists of additions and deletions for the Russell 3000 and the Russell Global Index are posted at www.russell.com/Indexes/membership/reconstitution/default.asp.

Russell's index reconstitution process is followed closely by many investors because the Russell indexes currently have $4.4 trillion in assets benchmarked to them and account for an industry-leading 54% of all institutional investment products that use a benchmark.

About Russell
Russell Investments provides strategic advice, world-class implementation, state-of-the-art performance benchmarks and a range of institutional-quality investment products. Russell has more than $213 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2008, and serves individual, institutional and advisor clients in more than 40 countries. Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Contact:
Steve Claiborne, 253-439-1858

Russell Investments 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.

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