NEW YORK (AFP) - Russian equities will be removed from leading stock indices traded by US and European investors following recent sanctions and restrictions by exchanges, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced on Friday (March 4).

The index provider "will remove all stocks listed and/or domiciled in Russia from its standard equity indices" from March 9, said the organisation, part of S&P Global.

The group consulted with investors after the New York Stock and Exchange and Nasdaq suspended trading of Russian equities following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

While some of the index provider's most prominent benchmarks, such as the S&P 500, are composed solely of US-domiciled companies, Russian equities have been included in about two dozen indices traded by the US and European investors.

The ones with the biggest Russian representation include the Dow Jones Emerging Markets Select Dividend Index with 10.3 per cent Russian stocks and the S&P BRIC Equal Country Weight Index with 7.7 per cent.

S&P Dow Jones Indices said it was keeping Russian stocks in a handful of other indices that will be maintained "from a Russia-based investor perspective and therefore may include securities that may be ineligible from a US/UK/EU investor perspective."

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