Riyadh — The Saudi stock market has closed up over 5.5 percent on news that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman named Prince Muhammad Bin Salman as crown prince and deputy premier. The Tadawul index, the largest in the Middle East, also was boosted by news on Wednesday that benefits for civil servants were being restored. The Tadawul also cleared a major hurdle from the global stock benchmark provider MSCI to be included among its emerging markets. Trader confidence was also up after the Tadawul announced that global stock benchmark provider MSCI had added the exchange to its Emerging Market Index Watch List. Saudi Arabia is the only major emerging economy not represented in the index. The Watch List designation brings "anticipated MSCI Index inclusion now one step closer," Khalid Al-Hussan, CEO of the Saudi bourse, said in a statement. Tadawul and Saudi Arabia's Capital Market Authority, the regulator, have made a series of reforms as part of efforts by the Kingdom to broaden its investment base and diversify the economy. The Tadawul All-Shares Index, which has a capitalization of about $400 billion, opened to direct investment by qualified foreigners for the first time in 2015. In February it inaugurated a parallel market designed to boost the role of small and medium firms. The MSCI's move "signals to international investors that the country's capital market has attained greater maturity in terms of efficiency, governance and regulatory framework," Tadawul chairwoman Sarah Al-Suhaimi said in the statement. Bloomberg News reported that calculations by HSBC Holdings Plc predicting the kingdom's shares could see inflows of around $9 billion next year if the MSCI grants emerging market classification. — Agencies
