Saudi Arabia stocks and related exchange traded funds were among the best Gulf performers on Monday after a positive review from index provider MSCI Inc.
The iShares MSCI Saudi Arabia Capped ETF (NYSEArca: KSA) increased 1.8% on Monday, breaking above its short-term resistance at the 50-day simple moving average.
Among Saudia Arabia’s best performers, Arab National Bank surged as much as 5.4% after indexer MSCI said it will add the company stock to its emerging markets index, Bloomberg reports.
MSCI Inc. has been slowly incorporating Saudi Arabian stocks into its benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the MSCI ACWI Index is a two-step process that began in June.
The decision to include Saudi Arabia into MSCI indices came after consulting international institutional investors, and it was made possible, following a number of regulatory and operational enhancements in the Gulf state that improved market access to potential foreign investors.
A Two-Step Review Process
Through the two-step process, MSCI Said Arabia IMI would make up about 2.6% of MSCI Emerging Markets IMI and add about 69 securities to the broader EM benchmark.
Investors are also waiting on the highly anticipated initial public offering of Saudi Aramco’s. Saudi Arabia will allow investors to start purchasing shares in the world’s most profitable company, starting on November 17. Riyadh is ready to allocate up to 0.5% of the stock to individual investors.
Investors hope the initial public offering to open up access to a highly profitable venture with attractive dividend yields. Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest integrated oil-and-gas company, producing one in eight barrels of crude oil globally, or 13.6 million barrels per day in 2018, Fortune reports. The firm showed a net profit of $68 billion in the first nine months of the year on revenues of $217 billion and promised to pay dividends of at least $75 billion next year.
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