Saudi Arabia fund quadruples in size as cash pours in ETF watch

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.