MOEX Russia Index

The MOEX Russia Index is a composite measure that converts the prices of the largest and most liquid shares traded on the Moscow Exchange into a single number and shows how the rouble value of that basket changes from one trading day to the next. It is a price index, calculated in roubles throughout the main trading session.

How a stock's weight is calculated

The index belongs to the capitalisation-weighted family: the more highly the market values a company, the more its moves affect the final figure. But the calculation does not use the whole market capitalisation, only the part that is actually available for trading — the free float. Shares locked up with the state or a controlling shareholder are deducted from the base, so a company that is formally large but has a small free float weighs less than it seems. In addition, there is a cap on the maximum share of a single issuer; otherwise the index would turn into the chart of one stock. The mechanics of the calculation are covered in more detail under the term capitalisation-weighted index.

The calculation base is not fixed: the exchange periodically reviews the list, removing stocks that have lost liquidity and adding new ones — including companies that have come to the market through an IPO. For the same set of stocks there is also a version that takes payouts to shareholders into account — the total return index.

Example: the weight of a heavyweight in the base

The index's movement is driven mainly by a handful of the largest issuers. This is seen most clearly in the stock with the largest share of the calculation base:

When a stock like this opens with a gap, the index shifts after it, even if the rest of the basket stands still.

What the index is not

The MOEX Russia Index does not measure the "state of the economy" and does not cover the whole market: small and illiquid issuers remain outside it, and its sector structure is skewed towards the commodity and financial sectors — a breakdown by sector is provided by a sector index.

The second common mix-up is equating it with the RTS Index. That is the same set of shares, but recalculated in dollars, so when the exchange rate moves the two indices diverge: the rouble one can rise while the currency one falls. When comparing a result with the index, it is also important to remember that the index itself cannot be bought directly: access to it is provided by an index fund, which deviates from the benchmark by the amount of its own costs.