MSCI has announced changes in constituents for the MSCI Global Standard Indexes, which will take place as of the close of May 31, 2024.
The news isn't good for Singapore with five deletions, which include one-time blue-chip heavyweights such as City Developments Limited
The removal of CDL will have come as a disappointment to market-watchers. The company itself deployed its share buyback mandate during times when prices dipped below $6. By end-May, only 16 SGX-listed stocks will remain in the MSCI Singapore section. "The overall allocation to the Singapore market by index funds (or any funds) may drop," gripes a market watcher.
"CDL should have done more to defend the stock. It may not just have been the increase in gearing that caused investors to sell the stock," says another market-watcher. As the market eagerly awaited CDL to divest of $1 billion of assets to lighten its balance sheet and pare debt, the developer announced it had acquired Hilton Paris Opera for EUR240 million ($350.2 million), disappointing the market further.
Elsewhere, China had net deletions, but India had net additions.
