Jun. 2--The Dow Jones industrial average, a barometer of corporate stock performance for decades, has turned a cold shoulder toward former giants General Motors and Citigroup.

General Motors, once lord of the highways and now bankrupt, has been removed from the average after the collapse of its empire that was built largely on gas guzzlers. It will be replaced in the average by Cisco Systems Inc., the computer networking company that helps keep the Internet running.

The naming of Cisco, based in San Jose, Calif., underscores the changing nature of the Dow, which has begun to focus less on industrial firms and more on the larger business community.

Citigroup, which until last year was Wall Street's biggest financial firm measured by assets, was dropped from the average after accepting $45 billion in federal bailout money in return for giving the government a one-third stake in the firm.

Some observers noted that its stock probably also was excluded from the stock index because it had traded below $5 a share for several months.

Citigroup will be replaced by Travelers Companies, which it once owned but spun off. Travelers is the second-largest U.S. commercial insurance company, insuring homes, autos and businesses. It began in 1853 as St. Paul Fire & Marine, grew into the St. Paul Companies, then merged with Travelers Property Casualty Corp. in 2003 to become St. Paul Travelers, which became the Travelers Companies in 2007. The company moved its headquarters from St. Paul to New York in March.

The editors of the Wall Street Journal, who determine which companies are part of the Dow Jones industrial average, said GM's bankruptcy gave them no choice but to remove it from the stock index.

They said they'd been reluctant to drop Citigroup in the midst of a banking crisis, but did so now because it was undergoing a major restructuring and would have substantial government ownership in the future. The editors said Citigroup might again be included in the average one day.

Citigroup is the second financial firm dropped from the Dow Jones industrial average in the current financial crisis. The first was American International Group Inc. (AIG), which was dropped in September after a federal bailout gave the government 80 percent ownership of the company. AIG was replaced in the index by Kraft Foods Inc.

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