MSCI, whose stock indexes are tracked by investors with about $3 trillion in assets, announced today it will extend its review for reclassification of the U.A.E. and Qatar from frontier status “in order to give additional time for market participants to assess the effectiveness” of the new payment systems in the exchanges, according to a statement.
The decision of MSCI to postpone the upgrade of U.A.E. and Qatar to June 2012 is expected to put mild pressures on the market in the coming days, but it provides for traders an opportunity for bargain hunting.
Trading volumes in GCC stock markets have plunged this year as foreign funds trimmed holdings of riskier assets amid regional uprisings and as Europe’s debt crisis deepened.
Trading volumes in Dubai are at a six-year low.
