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From Christine Gaylican, Opalesque Asia:

Global index provider FTSE Group (FTSE) has upgraded the standing of South Korea, Malaysia, and, Argentina in its latest annual review of country classification for the FTSE Global Equity Index Series (GEIS) due to the various regulatory changes their governments made to accommodate more investments in the equity and foreign exchange markets.

South Korea moves up

According to the FTSE review (Source), South Korea's inclusion to the developed market indices beginning on September 21-2010 will likely result in new investment flows into the country.

Since the announcement last year (Source) that it was going to be elevated to developed market status, South Korea altered regulatory obstacles and imposed a free and well-developed foreign exchange market; free delivery settlement; and off-exchange transactions.

The inclusion of Korea in the FTSE All-World Developed Asia-Pacific ex-Japan index will give it a weighting of around 25% in the index, which could directly affect Hong Kong and Australia-its tough competitors in the Asia-Pacific region.

Malaysia's significant advances

The Malaysian government's significant advances to enhance the capital markets and relax restrictions in its foreign exchange allowed it to receive a secondary emerging market status u......................

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