SEATTLE, WA -- (Marketwire) -- 10/19/12 -- The Russell Emerging Markets Index reflected strong gains year-to-date (13.9%), as the top 5 performing countries all posted returns in excess of 30%, through October 15, 2012.

The Russell Egypt Index reflected the highest returns YTD (63.3%), followed by the Russell Turkey Index (46.5%) Russell Thailand Index (35.0%) and the Russell Philippines Index (34.77%).

"We have seen strong performance in emerging markets as many of these countries appear to have benefited from the perceived lower tail risk in the European Union," said Gustavo Galindo, emerging markets portfolio manager for Russell Investments. "Meanwhile, Egypt and Thailand have been a nice turnaround story as these markets had underperformed at the beginning of the year and rebounded nicely as risk appetite increased."

Russell Emerging Markets Index and Top and Bottom Country Performance

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                          October MTD      Third Quarter        2012 YTD
                         (as of 10/17)          2012         (as of 10/17)
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Russell Emerging
 Markets Index                1.02%             8.1%             13.9%
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                       October Month-To-
Russell Emerging              Date                              2012 YTD
 Markets Index Country (as of Wednesday,   Third Quarter   (as of Wednesday,
 Constituents             October 17)           2012          October 17)
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Egypt                        -1.15%            24.5%             63.3%
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Turkey                       5.39%              7.0%             46.52%
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Thailand                     0.27%             14.9%             35.0%
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Philippines                  3.99%              2.2%             34.77%
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Hungary                      8.96%             10.1%             34.6%
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South Africa                 -1.38%            6.47%             10.82%
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Czech Republic               5.05%             8.98%             9.34%
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Indonesia                    2.39%             6.44%             7.85%
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Brazil                       2.07%             6.38%             1.77%
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Morocco                      -2.08%            -3.4%            -11.55%
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Source: Russell Investments

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 index 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