Saudi Arabia has been upgraded by index provider MSCI to sit in its Emerging Market index for the first time, following its semi-annual review, while Argentina also re-enters the index after being downgraded in 2009.
The move, which came as part of MSCI's Semi-Annual index review, was based on changes by the country including a signficant improvement in the registration process for qualified foreign financial institutions (QFIs) and process of applying for a QFI license. It will see the MSCI Saudi Arabia index become 2.6% of the MSCI Emerging Markets index with 32 stocks, following a two-step inclusion process which will begin in June 2019. MSCI said this move "aims to further faciliate access" to the Saudi Arabian equity market for international institutional investors. It also noted the Saud...
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