Apple's weighting in Russell indices set to decline

Shares in Apple might come under further selling pressure at the end of the week as their weighting in one of the world's key equity benchmarks was set to fall.

Approximately $1.3bn-worth more of shares in the tech-giant was likely to be sold as a result of the reconstitution of the Russell indices due to take into effect on Friday, Reuters reported citing analysis carried out by Credit Suisse.

Aggressive share repurchases had lowered the number of outstanding shares in the Cupertino,California-based company from 5.8bn in late June 2015 to under 5.5bn.

Apple's weighting in the Russell 1000 was seen dropping from 2.77% to 2.52%, because of that lower number of shares and the company's smaller share in the index's capitalisaion.

The company was also set to be labelled as both a 'value' and 'growth' firm, with 92.0% of its stock being placed in the former category and the remainder in the other.

Managers of 'growth' funds were expected to sell Apple stock while those in 'value' funds did the oposite.

There were $96bn worth of assets benchmarked directly to the Russell 1000, according to Morningstar data referenced by Reuters.