China's Didi to be added to FTSE's equity indexes on July 8

Didi shares surged 6% in premarket trading on being added to FTSE's equity indexes on July 8.

Didi Global Inc will be added to FTSE Russell's global equity indexes on July 8 in an expedited entry following Wednesday's U.S. stock market debut of the Chinese ride-hailing company, the index publisher said.

Didi shares will be included in the FTSE All-World Index, the FTSE Global Large Cap Index, and the FTSE Emerging Index, FTSE Russell said in a statement on its website.

The announcement came as Didi, backed by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, rose slightly on its U.S. debut, valuing it at $68.49 billion, in the biggest U.S. listing by a Chinese company since 2014.

Didi is also backed by technology companies Alibaba, Tencent and Uber.