• Home
• /
• Markets
• /
• Business

Saudi bourse uncertain about MSCI entry in 2017

Dubai - The kingdom opened its market to direct foreign investment in June last year. In November, the exchange's chief executive at the time, Adel al-Ghamdi, told Reuters that he aimed for MSCI entry by mid-2017.

 Saudi Arabia's stock exchange (Tadawul) is not certain that it can join international index compiler MSCI's emerging markets index in 2017, the exchange's acting chief executive was quoted as saying.
The kingdom opened its market to direct foreign investment in June last year. In November, the exchange's chief executive at the time, Adel al-Ghamdi, told Reuters that he aimed for MSCI entry by mid-2017.
But Khalid Al Hussan, who took over on an acting basis in mid-November, told EconomicME magazine, a regional publication, that "there is still a level of uncertainty of when this could happen. There are multiple things to be considered, some of them within the control of the exchange, some of them outside.
"If you ask me, I wish for 2017. But whether this is going to happen or not, I don't know," he was quoted as saying.
Fund managers believe MSCI inclusion would draw billions of dollars of fresh money to the Saudi market. So far, foreigners have been lukewarm towards the bourse; they owned 4.58 percent of total market capitalisation at the end of January.
Hussan said the exchange had been working closely with MSCI to assess obstacles to inclusion. One is that trades must be settled on the same day.