Giving insights into the MSCI upgrade decision due next month, Bank of New York Mellon Vice President and Head of GCC Depositary Receipts Peter Gotke, said: “Although Doha’s stock market has not shown the same incredible growth enjoyed in the past few years,
nonetheless, Qatar remains on the top of most foreign investors’ list of investable markets in the Mena region.”
The MSCI Global Equity Indices are widely tracked global equity benchmarks and serve as the basis for over 500 exchanged traded funds throughout the world. The indices provide exhaustive equity market coverage for over 70 countries in the Developed, Emerging and Frontier Markets, applying a consistent index construction and maintenance methodology.
This methodology allows for meaningful global views and cross regional comparisons across all market capitalisation size, sector and style segments and combinations.
Elaborating on reliability of Qatar market, he said: “We believe that there has been something of a pause for breath thus far this year. Fundamentals remain very strong with more contracts being awarded later this year that should support this growth.
“The beneficiaries of these contracts will impact further on investors’ buying decisions. Of course, investors would like to see increased foreign ownership limits and opportunities to buy into the resource sector but it is unclear if this will change in the short term.”
Giving his overview on the MSCI upgrade decision Gotke said: “I am more confident at this juncture that the UAE will be upgraded to Emerging Markets status by the MSCI this coming June, with many affirmative actions having taken place across regional markets. It remains a priority that both the UAE, and Qatar, continue to attract institutional foreign investment, to provide enhanced stability for region.”
With more and more foreign investors looking to buy and sell in the UAE, clearly the newly implemented delivery versus payment (DVP) system, introduced as part of the MSCI criteria, has now been more fully tested, he said.
“It is likely that the UAE and Qatar would attract significant capital flows in additional foreign investment should the markets be upgraded to emerging market status,” he added.
