Asian Defensive & Dynamic Stocks Performed Equally for 2012 Year-to-Date as Measured by the Russell Asia Pacific Defensive & Dynamic Indexes as of 7th May

 

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwire - May 10, 2012) - The Russell Asia Pacific Index returned +7.3% for the year-to-date as of May 7th, with equal performance to the Russell Asia Pacific Dynamic Index (+7.3%) and the Russell Asia Pacific Defensive Index (+7.3%) for the same time period.

Year-to-date performance tells a different story from the first quarter of 2012, in which the Russell Asia Pacific Index returned +9.4%, with the Russell Asia Pacific Dynamic Index (+11.6%) outperforming the Russell Asia Pacific Defensive Index (+6.7%).

"The market seems to have shifted towards more of a risk-off mode as reflected by recent Russell Asia-Pacific Index returns," said Sarah Lien, Asia-based senior research analyst for Russell Investments. "Dynamic stocks have pulled back quite a bit relative to Defensive stocks when comparing first quarter to 2012 YTD performance. Despite the signs pointing to a risk-off environment, the spread between Dynamic and Defensive stocks is currently non-existent, and it is unclear how the rest of the year will unfold given that factor trends have not been persistent."

Russell Asia Pacific Index Returns

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                                                                 2012 YTD  

                                               First Qtr 2012     Returns  

Index                                               Returns      (as of 5/7)

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Russell Asia Pacific Index                          9.4%           7.3%    

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Russell Asia Pacific Dynamic Index             11.6%          7.3%    

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Russell Asia Pacific Defensive Index            6.7%           7.3%    

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The Russell Global Index includes more than 10,000 securities in 48 countries and covers 98% of the investable global market. All securities in the benchmark are classified according to size, region, country and sector. Daily Returns for the main components are available here: http://www.russell.com/indexes/data/daily_total_returns_global.asp

Disclaimer: http://www.russell.com/indexes/about/index_alerts.asp#disclaimer

For further information contact:
Lauren Goble
lauren@ryanfin.com
+852 9703 9161

 

 

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