No upgrade for UAE stock markets

UAE and Qatar miss out on achieving 'emerging markets' status from index firm MSCI

Influential index firm MSCI has disappointed UAE investors for the second time this year, after it today again postponed a decision on whether to upgrade the status of the country's stock markets.

In an announcement made in the early hours of this morning, the UAE and Qatar both missed out on achieving 'emerging markets' status – a label that would have ranked their stock exchanges with those in the likes of fast-growing China and Brazil.

MSCI said the two countries would now have to wait until its next annual review of market rankings in June 2012 to find out if they have finally made it out of the firm's lesser 'frontier markets' bracket.   Today's decision follows an anxious six-month wait for authorities, after MSCI said in it's last review in June this year that it would give the UAE an additional six months to show new systems that had been introduced for investors were working smoothly. In today's statement the firm said investors had praised the introduction of a new "delivery versus payment" model which reduces the risks in making a financial transaction, but added that they "continue to stress significant concerns over the effectiveness of this new framework to fully ensure the safeguarding of their assets under certain circumstances".   The firm added: "This is in particular the case for failed trades where a forced sale of assets, without the owner's consent, remains apossibility".   The UAE now has another six months to try and iron out such problems before finding out if its markets have taken a welcome step to maturity.