Frontline, Boskalis Shares Advance on MSCI Inclusion

By Alexis Xydias

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Frontline Ltd., the world's largest supertanker owner, and Royal Boskalis Westminster NV, owner of the biggest dredging fleet, jumped after the stocks were added to MSCI Barra's global indexes.

Frontline climbed 4.5 percent to 313 Norwegian kroner at 3:12 p.m. in Oslo, and Boskalis rose 5.6 percent to 35.50 euros in Amsterdam trading. The stocks were added to developed-market measures including the MSCI World Index as well as respective national benchmarks, MSCI Barra said in an e-mail today.

Jeronimo Martins SGPS SA, Portugal's biggest retailer, climbed 3 percent to 5.86 euros in Lisbon. Drax Group Plc, operator of western Europe's biggest coal-fired power station, gained as much as 3.8 percent before falling 1.6 percent after Merrill Lynch & Co. sold 5 million Drax shares. Both stocks were also added to the indexes, according to the e-mail.

As part of its quarterly reviews, MSCI Barra yesterday announced the changes to equity indexes that are benchmark to about $3 trillion, the index compiler said on its Web site. Joining and leaving an index can boost or hurt share prices as funds that track the measures must adjust their holdings to reflect the new compositions.

Duvernay Oil Corp., a Canadian oil explorer; Petrohawk Energy Corp., a Houston-based natural-gas producer; and Alpha Natural Resources Inc., the coking-coal producer that agreed in July to be taken over, will also join the indexes. All changes will take place as of the close of trading on Aug. 29.

Deletions

Smurfit Kappa Group Plc, Europe's largest maker of cardboard boxes, led declines among stocks that will leave the index. The shares tumbled 13 percent to 3.97 euros in Dublin.

Taylor Wimpey Plc, the U.K.'s largest homebuilder; Punch Taverns Plc, the biggest pub owner in Britain; Oshkosh Corp., the Wisconsin-based maker of aerial work platforms; and AutoNation Inc., the largest publicly traded U.S. car dealer, will also be removed from the indexes.

In emerging markets, four stocks were added to the MSCI index universe, according to the e-mail, with no deletions.

Yurun Food Group Ltd., China's biggest hog processor; S1 Corp., a provider of security services in South Korea; Russia's OAO RusHydro, the world's biggest publicly traded hydropower producer; and PT Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper, an Indonesian pulp and paper company, will join the indexes.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexis Xydias in London at axydias@bloomberg.net.