KARACHI: Pakistan successfully maintained its emerging market status in the semi-annual index review for the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) equity indexes as all the three key blue chips complied with the free-float standards to qualify as the index constituents.
The three constituents of the MSCI Pakistan index, namely Habib Bank Limited, Oil and Gas Exploration Company and MCB Bank posted combined market capitalisation at $2,674 million, eking out MSCI weight at 0.03 percent.
Foreign investors having an estimated $1.5-2 trillion in hand track the MSCI Emerging Market (EM) Index to decide whether to invest or divest in the stock markets that are part of the index.
In the MSCI Small Cap index, 16 companies retained their positions, which include Engro, United Bank Ltd, Fauji Fertiliser, Lucky Cement, Hub Power Co, Pakistan Oilfields, Engro Fertilisers, Pakistan State Oil, Bank Alfalah, Sui Northern Gas, Searle, National Bank of Pakistan, Nishat Mills, Millat Tractors, Worldcall Telecom, Indus Motors and Packages Ltd.
No securities were added in the review. However, three securities, namely DG Khan Cement, Kot Addu Power Company, and Thal Limited were deleted from MSCI Global Small Cap Indexes.
The PSX’s benchmark KSE 100-share Index has recovered a net 6% or 2,078 points to 35,978 points from the three-year low of 33,900 points hit a day before the MSCI held its previous semi-annual review in mid-May 2019.
