KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 13): Construction giant Sunway Bhd (KL:SUNWAY) has been added into MSCI Malaysia Index, while no constituent was deleted in the August review.

MSCI Malaysia currently has 32 constituents that covers about 85% of the country’s equity universe before the inclusion of Sunway. All changes to MSCI indices will be effective at the close of Aug 30, 2024, MSCI said in a statement.

The next review, which would be a semi-annual rebalancing, has been scheduled for Nov 6, 2024.

MSCI indices are closely watched by fund managers and foreign investors. An inclusion into the indices can trigger inflows as passive investors add the new constituent into their portfolios to mirror the benchmarks. 

At the end of July, Public Bank Bhd (KL:PBBANK), Malayan Banking Bhd (KL:MAYBANK), and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (KL:CIMB) were the index’s top three constituents that collectively account for 33% of the index weightage.

Six stocks have also been added to the country’s Small Cap Index — Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd (KL:AEONCR), Dayang Enterprise Holdings Bhd (KL:DAYANG), Genting Plantations Bhd (KL:GENP), Guan Chong Bhd (KL:GCB), ITMAX System Bhd (KL:ITMAX), and Sunway Construction Group Bhd (KL:SUNCON).

MSCI Malaysia Small Cap Index has 64 constituents, which covers about 14% of the Malaysian equity universe at the end of July.  The top three constituents in the index were Dialog Group Bhd (KL:DIALOG), IJM Corporation Bhd (KL:IJM), and Bursa Malaysia Bhd (KL:BURSA).