MSCI’s benchmark methodology

 

Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) is a leading provider of domestic and international indexes, as well as benchmark-related products and services, to investment managers around the world. A benchmark specialists and consultant for more than 35 years, MSCI has more than $3 trillion, as of December 2008, benchmarked to its indexes globally.

The MSCI indexes are market cap-weighted indexes, which means stocks are weighted according to their market capitalization—calculated as stock price multiplied by the total number of shares outstanding. The stock with the largest market capitalization gets the highest weighting on the index. Each index in the MSCI family is reviewed quarterly and rebalanced twice a year.

MSCI website