Analysts say MSCI’s index shuffle won’t upset Athens bourse prices
Equity analysts do not expect any major impact on Greek stocks from MSCI’s rejigging of its benchmark stock index series that will go into effect next month, with any possible inflows seen as limited.Index compiler Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) will announce changes to its index series at 20.15 GMT today, with changes effective at the close of trade on May 31. «Greece was included in the European indices last May with the new free-float methodology, while other European countries have been (slowly moving) to the new standard in the last 11 months,» said equity analyst Nick Diamantopoulos at Kappa Securities. MSCI’s early announcement is designed to provide time for investors to analyze and understand the changes. «As this is the first full free-float review since the launch of the enhanced methodology in May 2001, the number of affected securities is likely to be high,» MSCI said. MSCI said it will seek to minimize other changes, including additions and deletions, but indices in any region may be affected, including Europe. Money flows were heavy in the first phase of the shift to free-float, whereby a stock’s index weighting is based on the number of shares freely available to trade and not held closely by governments or families. MSCI upgraded Greece from emerging to developed market status in May 2001 after the country joined the eurozone in January last year, enabling it to court a new league of fund managers. Its rebalancing last November, which took the non free-float-weighted countries half way towards the new system, saw Greece’s weight increase to 0.52 from 0.50 percent in MSCI Europe, 1.06 from 0.96 percent in MSCI Euroland and to 0.38 from 0.36 percent in MSCI EAFE. «We project the review may take Greece to higher weightings of 0.55, 1.2 and 0.40 percent respectively,» Diamantopoulos said, adding that the relative weight of Greece’s bank-heavy index may increase. But because provisional MSCI indices have existed in parallel during the last months, most fund managers have been already tracking them closely. «The small changes that might arise in Greece’s weightings might not lead to substantial inflows,» Diamantopoulos said. In October last year, MSCI launched a small-cap index for Greece with 24 constituent stocks, adding it to its small-cap index series. – In Atlantic, Hanjin has fixed M/V «New Arising» 71,695 dwt, built 1995, delivery end April Rotterdam trip via US Gulf, redelivery Japan, at USD 9,500 daily.
