FTSE Group promotes UAE, demotes Argentina

Global index provider FTSE Group said Thursday it will promote the United Arab Emirates to a so-called secondary emerging market status within the FTSE Global Equity Index Series starting in September 2010. FTSE will also downgrade Argentina to frontier status from secondary emerging, while Malta will be included as a frontier market. The index provider will also add the Czech Republic, Malaysia and Turkey to a watch list for possible future promotion to advanced emerging-market status. FTSE keeps a watch list of countries it's actively monitoring for possible promotion and demotion between developed, advanced emerging, secondary emerging and frontier status. Following the latest review, Iceland will be removed from the list, while China "A" shares, Colombia, Greece, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Taiwan and Ukraine will remain on the list