Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Inc., a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services, announced the addition of one Pakistani company as a constituent on its Frontier Market (FM) and three companies in its FM Small Cap Index as part of its May 2026 index review.
Meanwhile, one Pakistani company has been removed from its FM Small Cap Index, while one from FM Small Cap Index.
In the MSCI Frontier Markets Indexes, one Pakistani company, i.e. Habib Metro Bank, has been added, while The Searle Company Limited has been deleted, stated MSCI in the note.
These changes are to take effect from the close of May 29, 2026.
The MSCI Frontier Markets Index captures large and mid-cap representation across Frontier Markets countries. The index covers about 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalisation in each country.
Meanwhile, three Pakistani securities were added to the MSCI Frontier Markets Small Cap Indexes, including Crescent Textile Mills, Highnoon Laboratories and The Searle Company Limited.
While one was deleted, namely, Murree Brewery.
“Pakistan’s market has outperformed the MSCI FM index by 4.1% in FY26TD,” said Arif Habib Limited (AHL), in a note. “Pakistan’s weight in the FM standard index is expected to be around 5.8%,” AHL added.
In September 2021, Pakistan was downgraded from its status as an emerging market, a little over four years after it was reclassified from the Frontier Markets (FM) Index by MSCI.
Back then, the MSCI had said that while the Pakistani equity market meets the requirements for market accessibility under the classification framework for Emerging Markets, it no longer meets the standards for size and liquidity.
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