MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI) announced on June 20, 2017 that beginning in June 2018, it will include China A shares in the MSCI Emerging Market Index and the MSCI ACWI Index.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is one of the world’s most widely recognized measurements for stock performance in emerging markets. The index tracks the performance of more than 800 stocks in 23 economies, more than 70 percent of which are in Asia.
About $1.7 trillion in global assets are benchmarked to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, and overseas investors will start buying A shares when they are included in the index. That in turn would cause the A-share markets to see a further strong rise, Shanghai-based news website thepaper.cn reported on last Monday.
Rani Jarkas, Chairman of Cedrus Investments, a global boutique investment firm with offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, said, “MSCI’s decision to include A shares in its index shows that China’s economy is growing stably, and has a lot of potential. As more international capital flows in, the A-share markets will no longer be dominated by local investors and financial products in mainland stock markets will become more diversified.”