The quarterly review of MSCI drew strong Greek market interest, with ElvalHalcor securing inclusion in the MSCI Greece Small Cap index, while Autohellas was removed from the benchmark.
Conversely, the composition of the MSCI Greece Standard remained unchanged, retaining ten constituent stocks: Eurobank, Alpha Bank, National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Bank, PPC, OTE, Jumbo, GEK TERNA, Motor Oil, and Allwyn.
The changes are scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2026, as the rebalancing will be executed following the close of trading on November 30.
The May upgrade
Consequently, investor attention now shifts toward the upcoming index reviews, and particularly the one in May, when MSCI is expected to upgrade Euronext Athens, a move that according to JP Morgan will trigger passive outflows of $5.1 billion from funds tracking emerging market indices.
On the other hand, funds investing in developed markets are projected to execute purchases totaling $4.8 billion, resulting in an estimated net outflow of approximately $275 million.
Weighting decreases
This upgrade will reduce the weighting of Greek equities within the new benchmark indices, analysts at JPMorgan explain.
The weighting of Greece in the MSCI World index is estimated at 0.06%, compared to the 0.61% share it currently holds in the MSCI EM Standard Index.
At the same time, only seven of the ten Greek stocks currently included in the emerging markets benchmark are expected to transition into the developed markets index.
The country weighting is projected at 0.41% in the MSCI Europe index and 0.27% in the MSCI EAFE.
It is noted that although the Athens Stock Exchange General Index has delivered a total return of 246% (including reinvested dividends) since the beginning of the decade, compared to 94% for the Stoxx Europe 600 index, it remains below its 2007 peak prior to the global financial crisis, unlike most European indices that hit fresh all-time highs this year.
www.bankingnews.gr
Readers’ Comments