By Andrew Torchia DUBAI (Reuters) — Saudi Arabia announced a string of reforms to its stock market that could attract billions of dollars of fresh foreign money and smooth sales of state assets as the kingdom grapples with damage to its finances caused by low oil prices. When Riyadh opened its bourse to direct foreign investment last … Continue reading
By James Eugene The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) announced on Monday that it plans to create a stock market for small and medium sized companies, with the intention of launching this new market at the beginning of 2017. Given the growing importance that SMEs are displaying for Saudi Arabia’s economy, the Tadawul will be undertaking a “market … Continue reading
More troubles may lie ahead for Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, as global equity index provider MSCI is considering dropping the nation from its benchmark Frontier Markets Index, which could put $500 million of equity investment under threat. On Thursday MSCI announced that it’s considering removing the country from its Frontier Markets Index, blaming currency restrictions imposed by … Continue reading
Is now the right time to buy emerging market (EM) assets? A growing number of the world’s largest money managers are saying yes, such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs, and an adviser to PIMCO. Against a backdrop of an oil price crisis which has been battering economies, markets, and companies; alongside worries over a slowdown in global growth led … Continue reading
By James Eugene Saudi Arabia’s acting chief executive has admitted that there is no certainty that the oil-rich nation could join the international index compiler’s emerging market index in 2017. Last year, it was heavily suggested that Saudi Arabia was looking at joining MSCI’s emerging markets list, with the potential of increasing inflows into the country’s bourse. But … Continue reading
Global equity index provider MSCI is planning to add some overseas-listed Chinese stocks — known as American Depositary Receipts (ADR) — to its emerging markets (EM) indexes this month, which should lead to billions of dollars pouring into such stocks from mutual funds and other investment companies and could eventually pave the way for mainland-listed stocks to find their way into … Continue reading
By James Eugene Troubling news for Morocco as Morningstar announced that they will be reclassifying the North African economy’s position from “emerging market “to “frontier market” status. According to Sanjay Arya, head of Morningstar Indexes, the rationale behind this demotion is due to a relatively large drop in liquidity over the past few years, consequently declining to levels below … Continue reading
Emerging market currencies are poised for their best week in over 17 years as investor concerns eased following the release of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s minutes from last month that indicate an interest rate hike in 2015 is not likely. This week, a Bloomberg index that tracks the performance of emerging market currencies has risen around 3.3 percent, after suffering its biggest quarterly loss … Continue reading
By Mark Mobius, Templeton Emerging Markets Group This month, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will hold their joint annual meeting in Lima, Peru, marking the first time such an event has been held in Latin America in almost 50 years. The organizations’ annual meeting provides a forum for finance ministers and central bank … Continue reading
Peru has averted a downgrade from emerging market status to frontier market status by MSCI — at least for the time being. The South American nation has retained its status as an emerging market by MSCI on Wednesday, thus ending the threat of such a downgrade that could have driven around $5 billion in outflows from the country. … Continue reading