BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, said it halted trading Russian securities across its funds earlier this week.

In a statement on 3 March, it suspended the purchase of all Russian securities across its active and index funds on 28 February following Russia's invasion of Ukraine during the previous week.

Russian securities now account for less than 0.01% of clients' assets, mostly across its index portfolios, BlackRock said in the statement from Rich Kushel, its head of the portfolio management group and Salim Ramji, global head of iShares and index investments.

A raft of asset managers have said they will sell their holdings in Russia once the country's market re-opens.

Liontrust, JPMorgan Asset Management, Pictet and BNP Paribas Asset Management are among those to have suspended dedicated Russia funds or those with exposure to the country.

BlackRock's move follows MSCI and FTSE Russell both revealing that they would remove Russian securities from their influential indices.

MSCI is to remove Russian equities from its Emerging Market Indices after market participants overwhelming confirmed they were "uninvestable".

"We will continue actively consulting with regulators, index providers and other market participants to help ensure our clients can exit their positions in Russian securities, whenever and wherever regulatory and market conditions allow," BlackRock further added in its statement.