Mubasher: Boursa Kuwait on Sunday announced adopting the FTSE Russell Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB) for all equity stocks listed on its markets, effective June 2018.

“The FTSE Russell ICB is a comprehensive, globally recognized standard, categorizing companies and securities across four levels of classification. Each company is allocated to the subsector that most closely represents the nature of its business, determined by its primary source of revenue and other publicly available information,” Boursa Kuwait explained in a statement released Sunday.

Commenting on the Kuwaiti market’s adoption of the FTSE Russell ICB, Boursa Kuwait CEO Khaled Abdulrazzaq AlKhaled stated that such a step would bolster the bourse’s transparency and adherence to international standards and universal benchmarks.

“Our goal of achieving worldwide status and becoming a regional leader just became a little closer with this step, an important milestone on our journey and goal of developing a liquid, reliable and sound capital market providing issuers with efficient access to capital, and investors with diverse return opportunities, evolving into a leading regional exchange,” AlKhaled added.

Meanwhile, FTSE Russell’s Head of the Middle East and Africa Gary Rynhoud stated that “Boursa Kuwait’s adoption of ICB’s globally recognised classification standard will support [it in meeting] the needs of the global investment industry and support increased international awareness and investment into Kuwait.”

In September 2018, Kuwait is set to be promoted to Secondary Emerging market status, after undergoing FTSE Russell’s Annual Classification Review in September 2017, the statement indicated.

Such steps will allow Boursa Kuwait “to flourish and expand,” AlKhaled said.