du joins MSCI Emerging Markets Index, opening door to wider global investor demand

Index inclusion takes effect September 1 and could bring new passive fund inflows

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Dubai: du will join the MSCI UAE Standard Index from September 1, giving the Dubai-listed telecom operator greater exposure to international funds that track one of the world's major emerging-market benchmarks.

The inclusion follows MSCI's latest Equity Index Review and will be implemented after the market closes on August 31. The change could increase the stock's visibility among global institutional investors and support trading liquidity as index-tracking funds adjust their portfolios.

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The MSCI UAE Standard Index forms part of the wider MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which covers large- and mid-cap companies across 24 emerging-market countries.

What the inclusion means for du shares

du said its growing market capitalisation, free float and trading liquidity supported its eligibility for inclusion.

The company expects the move to generate passive inflows from funds that track MSCI benchmarks, while expanding its exposure to international institutional investors.

Profit rises 12.6%

The index inclusion follows a stronger first-half performance from the telecom operator.

du reported revenue of Dh8.2 billion for the first six months of 2026, up 5.8% from a year earlier, while service revenue increased 7.7%.

EBITDA rose 10.5% to Dh4 billion and its EBITDA margin increased by 2.1 percentage points to 49.2%.

Net profit climbed 12.6% to Dh1.6 billion, while operating free cash flow increased 9.7% to Dh3 billion.

The company ended the period with 9.3 million mobile subscribers and 744,000 fixed customers.

du's inclusion becomes effective from September 1 following the portfolio changes at the end of trading on August 31.

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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