Foreign funds are flowing into the United Arab Emirates and Qatar as those markets prepare to be upgraded by global equity index compilers this year - but so far only a few top blue chips are benefiting much, Arabian Business reported.

At the end of May, MSCI will raise the UAE and Qatar to emerging market from frontier market status. S&P Dow Jones Indices will do the same in September.

By putting those countries on the radar screens of international fund managers, the upgrades are expected to bring billions of dollars of fresh money to the markets. The data shows the inflows of funds have already begun.

But it also indicates that only a handful of stocks, such as Dubai's Emaar Properties and Qatar National Bank , are getting the lion's share of the money, while most stocks are being neglected - a trend that may leave the top stocks vulnerable to profit-taking in coming months.