MSCI stands for Morgan Stanley Capital International, the first global market indexes, created in 1968. MSCI Barra now manages the 1,60,000 indexes.
The MSCI World is a stock Market index of 1642 world stocks. It is maintained by MSCI Inc., formerly Morgan Stanley Capital International, and is used as a common benchmark for ‘world’ or ‘global’ stock funds. The MSCI index includes a collection of stocks of all the developed markets in the world, as defined by MSCI.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is a float-adjusted market capitalization index that consists of indices in 21 emerging economies: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, and Turkey. MSCI Emerging Market Index was created in 1987.
The MSCI Frontier Markets Index tracks the stock markets of countries which are even more volatile than emerging markets. The 26 countries in the index are : Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Croatia, Estonia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Romainia, Serbia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Tunisia, and Vietnam. It was created in 2007.
The MSCI ACWI (Morgan Stanley Capital International – All Country world index) is a market capitalization weighted index designed to provide a broad measure of equity-market performance throughout the world. The MSCI ACWI is maintained by Morgan Stanley Capital International, and is comprised of stocks from both developed and emerging markets.
MSCI EAFE Index measures developed markets excluding the U.S and Canada. EAFE stands for Europe, Australia and Far East. The MSCI EAFE Index consists of the following 21 developed market country indices: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong-Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan,Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
MSCI Indexes are used as the base for exchange traded funds (ETF). MSCI Indices are Market capitalization weighted indices. Market caps in MSCI indices are calculated in U.S dollars, and in local currency to give you an idea of how the index is doing without the impact of exchange rates. They are updated daily, Monday through Friday.
Each Index is reviewed quarterly and rebalanced twice a year.
