MENA Asset Management Survey 2012 - National Bank of Abu Dhabi

Benchmarks
Recent Developments
Regional
In January 2013, Vanguard – one of the largest mutual fund providers in the
US - announced that Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund, including
Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF, began tracking the FTSE Emerging
Transition Index in 2013 as an interim step toward ultimately tracking the
FTSE Emerging Index. The plan to change indices had been announced in
October 2012 and was expected to result in considerable savings over time in
the form of lower expense ratios according to the company. Egypt, Morocco,
and UAE are MENA constituents of the FTSE Secondary Emerging Countries.
In December 2012, S&P Hawkamah ESG Pan Arab Index underwent its
annual rebalancing. The index includes the top 50 Pan Arab companies based
on their performance on nearly 200ESG metrics and uses an innovative ESG
score weighting scheme to ensure stocks with higher ESG scores have a
greater influence on the index than those with lower ESG scores.
In November 2012, S&P Dow Jones indices announced the results of 2012
annual country classification consultation review. For Kuwait, Oman, Qatar
and UAE, based on the responses received and as well as additional client
feedback, S&P Dow Jones decided that there will be no change in country
classification for these four countries.
In July 2012, MSCI introduced the new MSCI Islamic Market Investable Market
Indices. MSCI Is expanding its global Islamic indices with new IMI (Investable
Market Indices) each of which includes the full spectrum or large, mid and
small cap constituents. The new indices are calculated based on the MSCI
Islamic Index Series Methodology, which has been granted a Fatwa by an
independent sharia board.
In June 2012, Standard and Poor’s Indices announced the launch of shariah
index in partnership with OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) S&P/OIC
COMCEC 50; an index designed to measure the performance of 50 leading
shariah-compliant companies from the states of OIC. Companies from all 19
countries whose stock exchanges are members of OIC are eligible for the
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