MSCI Announces 13 Additions and 100 Deletions From ACWI Ahead of November Changes
Key Facts
MSCI announced the results of its November 2026 review on November 11, saying the changes will take effect at the close on November 30. In the MSCI ACWI, which combines global markets, the company will add 13 securities and delete 100. It said the results coincide with the start of applying the treatment of non-operating companies to the MSCI US index series as well, under a separate announcement issued the same day. The rule determines these companies’ eligibility by first screening operating assets and then, if they do not pass, applying five financial metrics. A company is ineligible if it is flagged on four or more metrics.
Broader index changes show different numbers of additions and deletions. The MSCI ACWI Small Cap will add 171 securities and delete 243, while the MSCI ACWI IMI, the broad investable-market index, will include 113 additions and 272 deletions. The MSCI World All Cap will add 140 securities and delete 100. These figures show component turnover across indexes with different coverage, from small-cap companies to broader market coverage. As with the ACWI results, those changes are scheduled to take effect at the close on November 30.
In the MSCI World Index, the company named U.S. company Moderna and Canadian company Aritzia as the two additions. In emerging markets, the three largest additions to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, based on companies’ full market capitalization, were China’s Zhongji Innolight H, India’s Life Insurance Corporation of India and Taiwan’s Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board Corporation. MSCI said the ranking is based on full market capitalization, not another measure cited by the company in its results announcement. These names place the announced changes in a geographic context spanning China, India and Taiwan. The available details here did not provide the number of additions and deletions for the emerging-markets index.
In the MSCI Frontier Markets Index, 12 securities will be added and 10 deleted. The largest additions cited were Oman Arab Bank, Bangladesh’s BRAC Bank and Kenya’s NCBA Group. This places financial institutions from Oman, Bangladesh and Kenya among the names MSCI highlighted when announcing its frontier-market review. These changes are part of the same results covering global and emerging-market indexes and will take effect at the close on November 30. The announcement did not specify a weight for each company or the scale of flows associated with the component changes. It also did not cite a price impact from the additions or deletions.
MSCI announced on October 15 that it would implement changes to the eligibility rules for non-operating companies, with minor modifications, as part of the November review. The category includes issuers of other companies with characteristics similar to non-operating companies, as well as investment funds, business development companies and passive investment vehicles that were already excluded. The test begins by screening for substantial operating assets; if a company does not pass, five financial metrics that are not sector-specific are applied. It is deemed ineligible if it is flagged on at least four metrics. The methodology thus separates the asset screen from the subsequent financial-metrics result.
The rules consider the two most recent annual periods available when making an addition or deletion decision. A company that is not currently a constituent is ineligible for addition if it fails in either period, while a current constituent is deleted only if it fails in both. This treatment reflects a difference between the threshold for adding a company and the threshold for retaining one already in the index: failure in one period is enough to prevent an addition, but is not sufficient on its own to remove a current constituent. MSCI said the methodology was adopted in October 2026, while the November review set the changes to take effect at the close on November 30. The company also confirmed that the treatment of non-operating companies applies to the MSCI US index series starting with this review.
As the methodology takes effect in the November review, MSCI said it will discontinue previous interim measures for companies whose digital-asset holdings represent 50% or more of their total assets. Those interim measures were announced in 2025, and ending them means the treatment of this category will fall within the announced November review framework. The rulemaking step followed a consultation MSCI launched on August 3, 2026, on expanding the exclusion of non-operating companies, with September 30 set as the deadline for market participants’ comments. The company had expected to announce the consultation results by October 16 at the latest, then said on October 15 that it would implement the proposal with minor modifications. The announced effective date for these changes is the close on November 30, 2026.