New York (CNN Business)For many years, the world's most popular emerging markets have been the so-called BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
But given that Russia is no longer a market that Westerners can access following the invasion of Ukraine, it might be time for investors to stop lumping all of the emerging markets together.
"The BRICS had their day in the sun and that has faded," said Eric Winograd, senior economist at AllianceBernstein.
Several major US index providers have removed Russian stocks from indexes at a price of "zero" or "effectively zero." Trading shares of several leading US-listed Russian companies, such as search engine Yandex and telecom MTS, have been halted. And the Moscow Stock Exchange has been closed since February 25, the day after the invasion.
"The idea that a country as large as Russia can be removed from indexes is a big deal," Winograd said.
It seems likely that Russia will not be included in top emerging markets funds anytime soon. Even for those Westerners still willing to invest in Russian assets, it's not clear what comes next.
"Some investors are asking about exposure to Russia in emerging markets funds. With indexes starting to exclude Russia, it's still a wait-and-see game," said Mychal Campos, head of investing at Betterment.
For investors looking to get exposure to emerging markets, Winograd said, each country should be looked at individually.
"The name of the game will be differentiation. Don't invest in emerging markets based on an acronym," Winograd said. "It's always strange to say that Argentina and South Korea are the same thing, for example. They're not."