Qatar Exchange Welcomes MSCI Decision to Upgrade Qatar

12/06/2013 16:36 AST

Qatar Exchange welcomed the decision of the MSCI to upgrade the Qatari market from a Frontier Market to Emerging Market, describing this decision as a positive step towards the development of Qatar Exchange and milestone that will attract further foreign investments to the Qatari stock market.

Mr. Rashid Bin Ali Al-Mansoori, CEO of Qatar Exchange, expressed his satisfaction to upgrade the rating of the Qatari market to emerging market, which clearly and evidently reflects the recognition of the positive steps made by Qatar Exchange over the past years to meet the MSCI requirements, in terms of the development of the market infrastructure and the implementation of a number of important projects and initiatives, which were welcomed by the international financial and investment institutions.

Mr. Al-Mansoori stated that the Qatar Exchange, which has a market cap of over QR 512 billion (more than $140 billion), is one of the leading stock exchanges in the GCC and MENA regions, and since it was established in 1995, Qatar Exchange has made great strides in the development of infrastructure, diversification of investment tools available for trading, and launching of many initiatives that have helped various types of investors to enter the market and invest in a more easily efficient and orderly manner. Qatar Exchange has also achieved a great success in complying with the best international practices at various levels, including regulatory issues, operational efficiency and the development of trading and post trading environments.

Mr. Al-Mansoori stressed that: "This decision comes as a natural result of the efforts pursued by Qatar Exchange and other concerned parties in Qatar’s financial markets industry. The upgrade of Qatar by MSCI from frontier market to emerging market is a very positive step for the development of Qatar Exchange and is likely to draw more international investors into the country''''s equity markets, since many are interested to invest in emerging markets.”

It is to be noted that the upgrade of Qatar status reflects meeting the MSCI qualitative requirements for inclusion in Emerging markets, especially the degree of openness of the market to the international investment community and an established and well-tested operational framework.

In addition to that, the Qatari market has also met the quantitative requirements and fulfilled the minimum size and liquidity requirements as defined for Emerging Markets.

In this regard, it is worth mentioning that the MSCI Emerging Markets Index is one of the most widely used indices to gauge the performance of emerging equity markets. According to MSCI, the reclassification of MSCI Qatar will coincide with the May 2014 Semi-Annual Index Review.

MSCI is a global financial institution and a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, including indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics and corporate governance services.

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