Equity markets in FTSE’s Global Equity Index Series fall into one of four categories: Developed, Advanced Emerging, Secondary Emerging and Frontier. In September 2013 Qatar was added to a FTSE’s ‘Watch List’ for possible promotion and then in March this year the index provider cited Qatar as having now passed its key liquidity criteria for Secondary Emerging Market inclusion.
In Friday’s announcement they confirmed Qatar had met all the criteria required to attain Emerging Market status.
Mr. Rashid bin Ali Al-Mansoori, CEO of Qatar Stock Exchange, stated ‘We are delighted with FTSE’s decision to upgrade Qatar to emerging markets status. It is yet again an endorsement by international investment community of the progress the Qatari market has made in recent years. We welcome the entire investment community that is benchmarked to the FTSE indices’.