Global index compiler MSCI will delete Vodafone Qatar from its global emerging market index and Qatar First Bank will figure for the first time in its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) small cap index with effect from December 1 this year.

No reason was furnished for the deletion of Vodafone Qatar from the MSCI global standard indexes and its downgrade to MSCI GCC small cap index.
The MSCI Qatar Index is designed to measure the performance of the large and midcap segments of the Qatari market. Its top 10 holdings (as on October 31, 2016) are QNB, Industries Qatar, Masraf Al Rayan, Ezdan, Qatar Insurance, Ooredoo, Nakilat, Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar Electricity and Water and Commercial Bank, which together constitute about 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalisation.
MSCI is considered to be one of the leading providers of international equity indices, with about $3trn of funds benchmarked against its indexes globally and some $321.9bn invested in exchange-traded funds linked to the MSCI indices.
Last year global index compiler MSCI, Standard and Poor's-Dow Jones and FTSE Russell had upgraded Qatar into ‘emerging’ market from ‘frontier’ status in view of many structural changes.
Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) is eyeing further upgrade from emerging market to developed market status in MSCI and is all set to further develop an efficient market infrastructure.
"We are committed to developing the efficient market infrastructure required for achieving developed market status," QSE chief executive Rashid bin Ali al-Mansoori had recently told a MSCI delegation, headed by its chairman and chief executive Henry Fernandez.