NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global index provider FTSE Russell said on Thursday it will add Pakistan and Egypt to watch lists for possible demotion in its equity index suites.
Both countries will be on watch lists for demotion from “secondary emerging” markets, with Pakistan looking to become a “frontier market” while Egypt could be dropped to “unclassified.”
Pakistan’s market capitalization will be assessed at the close on Dec. 29, FTSE said.
Vietnam will remain on the list for a possible upgrade from “frontier market” to “secondary emerging,” the index provider said.
FTSE had this month announced Nigeria was reclassified from frontier to unclassified, and the country dropped from equity indexes effective Sept. 18. The move, FTSE said, was due to issues for international investors to repatriate capital.
FTSE said it will update on the watch list status of Vietnam, Pakistan and Egypt as part of its equity country classification scheduled for March 2024.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Leslie Adler and Josie Kao)
