Sea to replace Suntec Reit on MSCI Singapore Index

FOLLOWING the results of MSCI's May 2021 semi-annual index review (SAIR), Singapore-based Sea Ltd is to be included in the MSCI Singapore Index while Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust (Suntec Reit) will be deleted as of the close of May 27, 2021.

This comes after MSCI announced in November 2020 that foreign listings will become eligible for the MSCI Singapore Indices from the May 2021 SAIR, after the Singapore market met the foreign listing materiality requirements.

In a press statement dated Monday, the global index provider named Sea A ADR (Singapore) as one of the three largest additions to the MSCI World Index by full company market capitalisation alongside Volvo A (Sweden) and Palantir Technologies A (US).

Sea, which is currently listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), will be among 109 securities added to the flagship global equity index. Ninety-six other securities will be deleted.

It was previously identified as one of three foreign-listed securities eligible for the MSCI Singapore Investable Market Index (IMI) during the index provider's February 2021 review. Simulations during the February review showed that the tech counter's American depositary receipts constituted 20.9 per cent of the MSCI Singapore IMI, and 25.8 per cent of the MSCI Singapore Index.

Sea's long-anticipated MSCI Singapore inclusion is expected to bring the index in line with other global indices that already have exposure to the new economy sector, according to analysts The Business Times spoke to in March.

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Suntec Reit - which will be dropped from the MSCI Singapore index more than six years after its inclusion in November 2014 - was the most actively traded counter by volume at Wednesday's open.

It will join its Singapore peers on the MSCI Global Small Cap Indexes along with Haw Par Corporation, iFast Corporation, Nanofilm Technologies, Olam International, Razer and Riverstone Holdings.

Bumitama Agri, GuocoLand, Wing Tai and Yoma Strategic will be deleted from the list of small-cap constituents on the Singapore index.

Suntec Reit lost S$0.01 or 0.67 per cent to close at S$1.49 on Wednesday. Shares of Sea on the NYSE closed on Tuesday up US$6.22 or 2.8 per cent at US$228.77.