Chart of the week: Kuwait's stockmarket is ready for take-off

Kuwait's stockmarket is due to be promoted from “frontier” status to an emerging market by index provider MSCI next June. That should entice almost $10bn of global investors’ cash into the country.

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The KMEFIC FTSE Kuwait Equity UCITS ETF (LSE: KUWP) has made little progress since HANetf launched it in London earlier this year. But that could soon change. Kuwait is due to be promoted from a "frontier" market to an emerging one by index provider MSCI next June. That should entice almost $10bn of global investors' cash into the market, reckons HANetf.

The overall market capitalisation of the local index is only around $30bn. Meanwhile, Kuwait has the world's sixth-largest oil reserves, but is sensibly diversifying in an effort to become a regional commercial and financial hub. The ETF, which tracks the FTSE Kuwait All-Cap 15% Capped index comprising small, mid and large caps, has low exposure to oil.

Viewpoint

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Randall Forsyth, Barron's