OREANDA-NEWS. On May 27, 2013 the Moscow Exchange launches the Blue-Chip Index, the benchmark tracking performance of most liquid and highly capitalized securities of 15 Russian issuers.

The Moscow Exchange's Blue-Chip Index is a fully representative indicator properly reflecting situation on the Russian stock market. Capitalization of its constituents made up 65% of the total capitalization of the Russian equity market and trading volume of them — 75% of the overall equity market trading volume.

The Blue-Chip Index Methodology sets forth compliance of the index with both Russian and foreign legal framework. In particular, it meets requirements of the UCITS 20/35 rule as to the diversification of the index basket that must be applied to indices employed in European index funds.

Weights of the Index constituent stocks are pro rata to their weights in the MICEX Index. The Blue-Chip Index will continue the historical values of the RTS Standard Index. During the main trading session the index will be calculated on prices of the Main Market Sector.

The launch of the Blue-Chip Index marks the final phase of creation of the Moscow Exchange's unified equity index family. This implies that from now a single approach to building constituent lists of all main indices is utilized that is based on stocks' capitalization, liquidity and free-float. The indices are calculated by a single formula that is the most valuable feature for clients including for those using trading algorithms.

The Blue-Chip Index Methodology was approved by the executive bodies of CJSC "MICEX Stock Exchange" and Moscow Exchange on April 19, 2013.

All indices composing the unified index family are subsets of the Broad Market Index comprising 100 stocks. Top 50 stocks by capitalization adjusted for free-float are included on the lists of the MICEX Index and RTS Index. Next 50 stocks enter the composition of the Second-Tier Index. The Sectoral Indices are formed through dividing the Broad Market Index constituents by economy sectors. The most liquid and highly capitalized stocks of 15 issuers are included in the Blue-Chip Index. The Moscow Exchange offers a wide range of market indicators intended for different types of customers. The unified calculation methodology and dual currency representation of the indices values provide investors with great opportunities for comparing prices of various asset classes, ruble- and foreign currency-denominated components as well as creating financial instruments.