The Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Indices were the first international benchmarks constructed to fulfill investors' growing need to accurately compare the stock markets of different countries. MSCI, based in New York, with sales offices in three continents, has covered the world's developed markets since 1968. In 1988, MSCI began coverage of the emerging markets. Currently, MSCI covers over 1,700 securities in 28 emerging markets and 2,600 securities in 23 developed markets, totalling over $15 trillion in marketcap. Investment professionals around the world use MSCI data for a variety of purposes, such as: performance measurement, stock valuation, asset allocation and backtesting.

Although local stock exchanges calculate their own indices, these are generally not comparable with one another, due to differences in the representation of the local market, mathematical formulas, base dates, and methods of adjusting for capital changes. MSCI applies the same selection criteria and calculation methodology across all markets for all indices, developed and emerging. In fact, MSCI is the only provider of indices consistently applied across developed and emerging markets.

MSCI indices are notable for the depth and breadth of their coverage. MSCI's Developed and Emerging Market Indices reflect stock market trends by representing the evolution of an unmanaged portfolio containing a broad selection of domestically listed companies. With a target market coverage of 60%, the MSCI Indices balance the inclusiveness of an "all share" index against the investability of a "blue chip" index.

http://www.ms.com