Infosys, Zee weightage up in MSCI index

Mumbai: Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) has increased the weightage of Infosys Technologies and Zee Telefilms in both the MSCI Emerging Market Fund (EMF) index and MSCI India index. The overall weightage of India in the MSCI EMF index has risen up from 4.1 per cent to 4.2 per cent.

Infosys will now have a weightage of 0.51 per cent against the earlier 0.44 per cent in the MSCI EMF index, while its weightage in the MSCI India index rises from 10.69 per cent to 12.1 per cent.

Zee Telefilms weightage in the MSCI EMF index has increased marginally to 0.07 per cent from 0.05 per cent, while its weightage in the MSCI India index stands at 1.57 per cent against 1.2 per cent previously.

Sterelite Optical has been deleted from the MSCI India index. It carried a weightage of 0.09 per cent.

MSCI had recently announced changes in the quarterly structural composition of its Standard Indices. All changes become effective at the close of 30 August 2002.

MSCI had cut Indias ratings in its emerging markets index to 3.93 per cent, from 5.55 per cent, in April 2002. However, following changes in the country policies on foreign institutional investment, the weightage rose to 4.2 per cent.

Formerly, the indices components were weighted according to their market capitalisation, ignoring the amount of company shares freely available for investment. Under the free-float criteria, MSCI had cut weightage of companies with large stakes held by the government, families or management, and took into account restrictions on foreign ownership.