Russell 3000 Set to Gain 43 Health Care Firms (Russell.com)

Russell 3000 Set to Gain 43 Health Care Firms
Annual Reconstitution Process Adds 52 California-Based Firms

Tacoma, WA — June 23, 2006 — Forty-three health care firms, including 17 biotechnology research and production companies, will move into the broad-market Russell 3000® Index when it is fully reconstituted on June 30, replacing companies that didn't fare as well during a generally positive year on Wall Street. Other sectors that likely will gain the most among the 237 companies on the preliminary additions list are consumer discretionary and services (39), technology (36) and financial services (34). The complete list of preliminary additions is available on www.russell.com.

Similarly, 40 health care companies currently in the Russell 3000, including 21 biotechnology research and production firms, are set for removal from the index after the market closes June 30.

"Index reconstitution objectively captures the changing fortunes of companies and industries in the U.S. equity market," said Lori Richards, director of client service for Russell indexes. "It's an interesting twist this year that the same sector sees the most movement in terms of the number of companies set for inclusion and removal. The important thing to note is that reconstitution provides investors with the current list of investment opportunities within all sectors to serve investors as reflective, unbiased tools."

Among the 50 states, California again led the way with 52 companies on the list of additions. Rounding out the list of states with the highest number of additions are Texas (31 companies), New York (18 companies), Massachusetts (15), Texas (10), New Jersey (10) and Florida (10).

But the list of preliminary deletions shows California's economy wasn't totally golden during the past year. Thirty-one of the companies set for removal from the Russell 3000 are based in California. Other states with at least 10 deletions are New York (20), Massachusetts (15), Texas (10), Florida (10) and New Jersey (11). Among the deletions based in California are 18 companies in the health care sector and 17 in the technology sector.

"The rotation of who's in and who's out of the Russell 3000 shows the changing nature of U.S. equity markets," said Richards. "We don't see a large movement to or from a particular sector or industry, but the process this year seems to be showing a great deal of competition between companies within the same sector."

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

Annual reconstitution of the Russell 3000 captures the 3,000 largest U.S. stocks as of the end of May, ranking them by total market capitalization. The largest 1,000 companies in the ranking comprise the Russell 1000® Index while the remaining 2,000 companies become the Russell 2000® Index. On June 16, Russell posted on www.russell.com its preliminary lists of companies set for addition to—or deletion from—the ranking of stocks that make up its U.S. equity indexes. Final index membership remains in place for one year.

The reconstitution process is followed closely by many investors because the Russell indexes currently have $3.8 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 Investment Group, a global leader in multi-manager investment services, provides investment products and services in 44 countries. Russell manages more than $167 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, Singapore, Sydney, Auckland and Tokyo.

Contact:
Steve Claiborne, 253-439-1858

Russell Investment Group is a registered trade name of Frank Russell Company, a Washington, USA corporation, which operates through subsidiaries worldwide. Frank Russell Company is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.

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