Linking up with London-based investment manager Financial Risk Management (FRM), Morgan Stanley Capital International said it intends to launch a family of hedge fund indices. The benchmarks will be designed to be the global standard for hedge fund performance measurement and the most comprehensive source of hedge fund information, MSCI says.
It adds that managers and investors were increasingly demanding rigorous data and analytics to measure performance and risk in this rapidly growing asset class. The new indices would provide this, MSCI said. FRM has developed a database of 3,000 funds, which will form the initial core of the indices.
o MSCI says it is reclassifying all constituent bonds in its fixed income credit indices. The move would reflect the changing structure of the global economy, it says.
For corporate issuers, the new classification is based on the Global Industry Classification Standard launched by MSCI and Standard & Poor’s last year. It has added new asset class and sector classifications for other issuers including governments, Jumbo Pfandbriefe and asset-backed securities. The initial change to the MSCI fixed income credit indices is the move of real estate to the new class of financial corporate from industrial (non-financial).
Clients can see constituent bonds according to their new classification on the MSCI Fixed Income Indices web site, ClientLink, says MSCI.
o Two futures contracts based on MSCI’s European stock indices can now be offered and sold to institutions in the US, the index provider says. US regulator the Commodities Futures Trading Commission issued a ‘no action’ letter regarding the MSCI Euro Index and the MSCI Pan-Euro Index, it adds.
The futures and options contracts have been listed on the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange since May 1999.
o Greece may move from its Morgan Stanley Capital International index classification as an emerging market to a developed market. The index provider said it is conducting a review to decide whether or not Greece should be classified in the MSCI developed markets series in anticipation of the country’s potential inclusion in EMU (European Economic and Monetary Union).
It also says it would review whether the MSCI Egypt and Morocco indices should be included in the MSCI EMF index series. The two country indices are currently calculated on a stand-alone basis.