(Yicai Global) Aug. 13 -- World's largest index firm MSCI included three Chinese mainland listed companies in its MSCI Emerging Markets Index, it said in a statement today. It also added nine to its MSCI China All Shares Index and seven to its MSCI China A Onshore Index.

Chinese high-speed rail operator Beijing Shanghai High Speed Railway, which went public at the beginning of this year, was one of the entrants, along with Postal Savings Bank of China, one of China's six major commercial banks, and Maxscend Microelectronics, a developer and manufacturer of radio frequency chips.

This expansion is part of the New York-based firm’s quarterly stock index adjustments. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index tracks the performance of shares of large and medium companies in 26 emerging markets. Postal Savings Bank of China and Beijing Shanghai High Speed Railway have the highest market value among this round of inductees.

Semiconductor chip original equipment manufacturer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. has made in onto the MSCI China All Shares Index. National Silicon Industry Group, a supplier of semiconductor wafers also listed on the STAR Market, and Ingenic Semiconductor, a developer of integrated circuit and central processing unit technology, have the largest market cap among the nine stocks included in the index this time around.

SMIC and National Silicon Industry Group are also two semiconductor industry stocks among the seven newly-added to the MSCI China A Onshore Index this time. Another with a large market value is China Zheshang Bank.

Most of the stocks newly added to the MSCI indexes suffered mixed fortunes today. Postal Savings Bank of China [HKG:1658] lost 0.23 percent to HKD4.26 (55 US cents), SMIC [HKG:0981] was up 2.23 percent to HKD27.45, National Silicon Industry Group [SHA:688126] dropped 2.24 percent to CNY48.78 (USD7.03), Ingenic Semiconductor [SHE:300223] rose 2.96 percent to CNY89.88 and China Zheshang Bank [HKG:2016] dipped 0.26 percent to HKD3.77. Maxscend Microelectronics stock [SHE:300782] fell 2.45 percent to CNY406.87.

Headquartered in New York, MSCI is an index compilation company. Its various indexes are the benchmark indexes most commonly used by global portfolio managers. Fund companies buy stocks according to their company’s weights in the MSCI indexes to cause their funds’ performance to closely track that of the benchmark index.

Editor: Ben Armour