Peruvian equities and country-specific exchange traded fund investors breathed a sigh of relief as a recent ruling helped ease fears that MSCI indexing would downgrade the emerging market to frontier status.
The iShares MSCI All Peru Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EPU) gained 2.8% Friday. Peru has also been one of the best performing emerging market this year, with EPU surging 45.7% year-to-date.
Peru’s equity market rallied Friday after MSCI kept Southern Copper within the Peru index. Southern Copper is one of three Peruvian equities that meet MSCI’s “investable” requirements, and the indexer requires an “emerging market” to have at least three investable-designated stocks, according to Peru Reports.
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In the event MSCI moved Southern Copper out of its Peru index, Peru would have been downgraded to “frontier” status.
“With Southern remaining in the Peru index, it will ease concern among investors about what happens in June. Peru is going to stay as an emerging market,” Fernando Saavedra, a money manager at pension fund Prima AFP, told Bloomberg.
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