Saudi Arabia fund quadruples in size as cash pours in ETF watch
Expectations of an initial public offering from Aramco and rising oil prices are all boosting flows into Saudi equities
New York: Inflows this year have quadrupled the amount of assets in an exchange-traded fund that invests in Saudi Arabian equities, data compiled by Bloomberg show. While the iShares MSCI Saudi Arabia ETF (ticker KSA) may still be relatively small with just under $58 million (Dh213 million) in assets, buyers have been pouring money into the fund that had about $14 million in assets at the start the year.
Speculation about Saudi Arabia’s potential inclusion in the FTSE Russell and MSCI emerging-markets indexes, expectations of an initial public offering from Aramco and rising oil prices are all boosting flows into Saudi equities, according to Andrey Glukhov, a money manager at TCW Group who helps oversee more than $100 million in emerging-market equities.
