Maxim Added to MSCI World Index; Argentina Downgraded

By Reinie Booysen and Patrick Rial

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- MSCI Inc. said shares of U.S.-based Maxim Integrated Products Inc. are among the three largest additions to the MSCI World Index, while Argentina’s equities were downgraded.

Maxim, Crown Holdings Inc. and Myriad Genetics Inc. will be the three largest additions in the MSCI World, a dollar-based benchmark of stocks in 23 developed nations, MSCI said in a statement today. The changes will occur after the May 29 close.

The gauge has slumped 40 percent in the past year amid what the International Monetary Fund is predicting to be the first contraction in global growth since the end of World War II.

MSCI provides a variety of indexes divided into countries, industry groups, value metrics and other categories. The company estimates over $3 trillion in funds are benchmarked against their indexes globally.

Changes to the MSCI indexes can cause shares that are chosen for inclusion to advance, while those slated for deletion to drop as passively managed funds designed to mirror the benchmarks buy and sell stocks in accordance with those changes.

Hong Kong-listed Kingboard Chemical Holdings Ltd. and Renhe Commercial Holdings Co. and South Korea’s NCSoft Corp. are the three largest inclusions to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. NCSoft gained 1.4 percent even as the nation’s benchmark Kospi index lost 1.3 percent.

Argentina was downgraded from the Emerging Markets Indices to the Frontier Markets Index. Trinidad and Tobago was added to the Frontier Markets Index.

Noble Energy Inc., TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and Autozone Inc. were the biggest additions to the MSCI U.S. Large Cap 300 Index.

To contact the reporters on this story: Reinie Booysen at rbooysen@bloomberg.net; Patrick Rial in Tokyo at prial@bloomberg.net.