Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) announced on Wednesday in its recent Quarterly Review the inclusion of MTN Nigeria Communications (MTN) to the MSCI Frontier Markets Index.

Shares in MTN Nigeria Communications, one of the leading cellular telecommunications companies in Nigeria and also a subsidiary of MTN Group, opened 1.33% on Thursday after the announcement was made. The company was recently listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s premium board on the 16th May earlier this year and the firm’s board will be pleased that its shares are now included in the MSCI Frontier Markets Index.

The addition of MTN Nigeria Communications may provide a small boost, or at least a little bit of optimism, for the Nigerian Stock Exchange which was the second worst performing Frontier Market in July.

MSCI also mentioned that MTN will be the only addition to the MSCI Frontier Market Index and no deletions were made, a big contrast to the two additions and 23 deletions in the previous review in May, where MSCI confirmed that Argentina would be included in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. There were also no changes were made to the MSCI Frontier Markets Small Cap Index.

Kuwait, standing at 32.49% of the index as of July 31st 2019, will remain as the largest constituent in the index, pending a likely upgrade to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Vietnam (17.92%), Morocco (9.82%), Bahrain (5.93%) and Kenya (5.72%) complete the top five. National Bank of Kuwait (10.26%), Kuwait Finance House (9.42%) and Ahli United Bank (4.37%) are the largest companies in the index.