MENA Asset Management Survey 2012 - National Bank of Abu Dhabi

Benchmarks
GCC Overview
Money market benchmarks still have most money tracking them
In June 2012, top 10 benchmarks were tracked by 70% of fund assets in the GCC
in the dataset. This concentration remains, in part, due to the relatively large size of
money market funds – which are particularly large in Saudi Arabia - in aggregate GCC
data.
Top Benchmarks Used by Funds in the GCC
(millions of U.S. dollars, June 2012)
Rank Benchmark Fund Assets
1 SAIBOR 12,889
2 KSE Index 1,924
3 S&P Saudi Arabia Shariah Index 1,821
4 LIBOR 1,815
5 SAR Murabaha Index 1,033
6 KIC Index 854
7 S&P Shariah Index 731
8 KIBOR 671
9 S&P Saudi Arabia Large Cap Index 624
10 MSCI World Index 593
Source: Lipper, a Thomson Reuters Company
Limited change in the position of global index providers
The ranking of top benchmarks is largely the same as in 2011. Earlier, the
discontinuation of the MSCI GCC index as a result of a lack of agreement between the
Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) and MSCI had led most fund managers to adopt the
S&P GCC index. There were US$ 6.68 billion in GCC fund assets tracking S&P indices 1 ,
US$ 1.7 billion tracking MSCI indices, US$ 465 million tracking FTSE indices, and US$
407 million tracking Dow Jones indices as of June 2012 according to the available
1
S&P and Dow Jones became S&P Dow Jones Indices on July 2, 2012 following a joint
venture agreement between McGraw-Hill Financial and CME Group.
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