GM, Citi to move out of Dow Jones on June 8

Bankrupt auto-maker General Motors (GM) and beleaguered financial services entity Citigroup will be dropped from the US stock markets benchmark index Dow Jones Industrial Average by next week.

While GM would be replaced by computer networking technology company Cisco Systems, property and casualty insurance firm The Travelers Companies would take the place of Citi in the benchmark index, Dow Jones said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Both changes are effective with the opening of trading on June 8, 2009,” it said.The exit of GM, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, would mark the end of the car-maker being part of the index for 83 years.

“GM was added twice, first for about a year-and-a-half in 1915 and second on August 31, 1925. The only current component with a longer history is General Electric Co.

“GE was in the original Dow in 1896 but was removed and restored a couple of times; it has been a component steadily since 1907,” the statement noted.Citi joined the Dow on March 17, 1997, as Citicorp. Ironically, Travelers merged with Citicorp to form Citigroup in 1998, creating what was then termed as a “financial supermarket”. Citi spun off Travelers in 2002.