Pakistan’s weight rises in MSCI Frontier Index

Country stays at sixth place in the 26-member index.

KARACHI:


Pakistan’s weight has increased in the MSCI Frontier Index as Trinidad and Tobago was ousted from the index in the quarterly index review.


MSCI Inc, a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, is frequently used by top global fund managers to track a stock exchange’s position and make fund allocations accordingly, said InvestCap research head Khurram Schehzad.

The country’s weight rose to four per cent from 3.79 per cent in the latest quarterly index review announced late on Monday.

Pakistan, with the sixth highest weight in the index, is the highest weighted among Asian countries that include Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Vietnam.


India comes in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index which is an index above the Frontier Markets Indices, he added.

Pakistan was in that market until 2008, but it was shifted to frontier markets after the floor cap was introduced and foreign selling was witnessed, said Schehzad.

The Karachi Stock Exchange imposed emergency trading limits to halt a slide in stocks that sent the benchmark index down 42 percent in 2008 within a couple of months.

The New York-based index provider excluded Trinidad & Tobago that had a weight of 0.9 per cent from the MSCI Frontier Markets Indices, according to a statement issued by MSCI.

The index consists of 26 countries from across the globe. Three companies were added while 24 deletions from the MSCI Frontier Markets Index in the latest review, however, none from Pakistan. The three additions are Banca Transilvania from Romania, Qatar Fuel Company and Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka.

In the previous announcement, Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) was removed from the MSCI Pakistan Inde, leaving 12 stocks in the MSCI Pakistan Index with the country’s largest oil and gas explorer Oil and Gas Development Company with the highest weight.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2011.
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