FTSE to Raise Korea to Developed Market
Korea will see the status of its stock markets upgraded to ``developed'' from ``advanced emerging,'' giving them the potential to attract more foreign investment.
The Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) Group has decided to include Korea in its list of developed world indices, a high-ranking government official said Wednesday.
``Korea will be promoted to a developed market by the FTSE,'' confirmed Shin Jae-yoon, deputy minister of strategy and finance for international affairs.
FTSE CEO Mark Makepeace is to announce this in Seoul today along with the classification of several other global equity markets.
The FTSE is an index mostly benchmarked by European funds and investors, and is the most influential following the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) index.
The advancement to developed status is likely to attract more foreign investment on the domestic stock markets in the near future.
The promotion comes at a suitable time as it is expected to curb massive sell-offs by foreign investors amid the global credit crunch, analysts say.
Korea has failed to be classified as a developed market by the FTSE over the past three straight years, remaining in the advanced emerging category.
The FTSE has kept Korea on its watch list for possible promotion to developed market class.
Last year, Makepeace cited regulatory restraints in the foreign exchange sector as the main hurdle preventing Korea from becoming part of the global index compiler's advanced markets.
The FTSE stressed that Korea needed to ease rules on foreign exchange to boost accessibility for global investors.
Since that evaluation, the government has been keen on removing regulatory barriers on the exchange market.
The global index compiler does not evaluate individual market size, but looks into accessibility, quality and transparency.
The FTSE classifies global equity markets into three sectors ㅡ developed, advanced emerging and secondary emerging.
By Park Hyong-ki(Staff Reporter) / phk@koreatimes.co.kr
# The Korea Times [Sep 18, 2008]
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