MSCI will not implement any immediate changes to indexes with Russian securities that would normally be considered as part of a February quarterly index review, it said in a statement Friday.
Sanctions imposed by Western nations on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine prompted the decision, along with feedback from market participants on the investability and replicability of MSCI Russia indexes, the statement said.
Earlier in the week prior to Thursday's invasion, MSCI said it would assess the impact of sanctions and consider further steps, including freezing Russian indexes or removing some Russian companies from other indexes.
Once more sanctions were announced Thursday by the U.S., MSCI said it will "apply special treatment" to Russia securities in certain equity indexes, and not make changes at least until it conducts the quarterly index review of Russia indexes or impacted composite indexes.
The treatment applies to MSCI standard, small cap, micro cap, value and growth U.S. equity, U.S. REIT, Islamic, domestic standard, domestic small cap, overseas China standard and overseas China standard small cap indexes.
Previously announced changes in the number of shares for three securities in the MSCI Russia investable market index could come into effect in a May semi-annual index review, if the special treatment is removed, the MSCI statement said.
For non-market capitalization weighted indexes and custom indexes such as the MSCI factor, ESG, thematic and capped indexes, MSCI will not make any changes, including constraint factors, related to any security classified in Russia.
MSCI said it will continue monitoring developments in Ukraine, and welcomes feedback from market participants on the impact of the new sanctions.
