A passive benchmark has been left unchanged — and yet it is a big event for world markets.
一個被動基準保持了原樣——然而這對世界市場而言是件大事。
MSCI， the leading indexer of emerging stock markets， has decided not yet to go through with a proposal to start a partial admission of China’s domestic A-share market into its flagship emerging market index. As funds with assets worth $1.7tn are benchmarked against this index， the effect is profound.
新興股票市場的主要指數提供商MSCI明晟已決定，暫不采納將中國內地A股部分納入其旗艦新興市場指數的建議。因為有價值1.7萬億美元的基金以該指數為基準，這一決定具有深遠影響。
The earliest that A-shares can now be added is May 2017 — at a point when the current rally in A-shares， which has seen them more than double inside 12 months， may well have gone into reverse.
如今，A股能夠被納入的最早時間是2017年5月，屆時目前A股的牛市（不到12個月漲了一倍多）很可能已經逆轉。
MSCI made clear that talks with the Chinese authorities are ongoing， that it is continuing on a road map that leads to eventual inclusion， and that a decision to admit A-shares could come at any time.
MSCI明確表示，與中國有關部門的商談仍在繼續，它仍在向著最終納入A股的方向前進，且隨時可能做出納入A股的決定。
But the bottom line， for now， is that China has failed to convince the indexers on three points: that the process for allocating quotas to foreign investors needs to be “more streamlined， transparent and predictable”， that capital needs to be more mobile to allow daily liquidity for all investment vehicles， and that the issue of ownership of separate accounts in the new Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect programme needs to be clarified.
然而就目前而言，關鍵在於中國尚未在三個方面讓指數提供商信服：首先，向外國投資者分配額度的過程必須“更加順暢、透明和可預測”；其次，資本必須獲得更大流動自由，讓所有投資工具擁有每日流動性；第三，滬港通機制的實益所有權問題必須得到澄清。
All these issues have already been under intense discussion. But the argument that appears to have held sway is that while some investors can gain access to A-shares and others cannot， it would be unfair to judge them against a benchmark that includes A-shares.
圍繞所有這幾個問題都已展開密集討論。但看上去占上風的意見是，在一些投資者能夠買賣A股、而另一些不能的情況下，讓他們面對一個包括A股的基準是不公平的。
MSCI wants to admit A-shares — which are plainly now a huge part of the emerging markets world — but for now it is saying the authorities have not done enough.
MSCI想要納入A股——如今A股顯然已是新興市場世界的一大組成部分——但就目前而言，該公司認為中國有關部門做得還不夠。
China’s authorities had plainly been very keen to earn inclusion in the index for A-shares， despite claims by many sceptics that this would suck foreign money in at the top after the A-share market had already doubled within 12 months.
中國當局一直明顯熱衷於推動MSCI納入A股，盡管許多懷疑論者聲稱，鑒於A股市場過去12個月內已翻番，這將導致境外資金在頂部接盤。
Meanwhile， the implications for the fund management industry are profound. China’s scale is making it ever harder to allocate assets within emerging markets.
與此同時，這將對基金管理行業產生深遠影響。中國的規模將加大在新興市場內部配置資產的難度。
According to MSCI， if all A-shares were to be included at their full weighting， China would take up 43.6 per cent of the emerging markets index. That accurately reflects the importance of China to the emerging world but makes the job of asset managers close to impossible.
據MSCI介紹，若按照真實權重納入全部A股，中國將占到新興市場指數的43.6%。這固然準確反映中國對新興市場的重要性，但會讓資產經理幾乎沒法開展工作。
As Nick Smithie of Emerging Global Advisors in New York puts it， “China is too big for this index”.
正如紐約Emerging Global Advisors的尼克?斯密西(Nick Smithie)所說，“中國對這個指數來說太大了”。
Questioning whether anyone would feel that an “emerging markets” fund that was almost half in China was truly diversified
他懷疑不會有任何人認為，一只近一半資產配置在中國的“新興市場”基金真正算得上多元化，並預測可能會出現一系列新的指數。
he predicted instead that there was likely to be a proliferation of new indices.
他提出，很快會出現許多新的指數類別，比如“除中國外新興市場”，“除中國外亞洲”，以及“僅中國A股”。
He suggested there will soon be a boom in categories like “Emerging Markets ex-China”， “Asia ex-China” and “China A-shares only”.
就沒有發生的事件而言，這件事算是大的。
As non-events go， this was a big one.
譯者/闌天
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MSCI指數影響真的很大，過去只要被納入MSCI成分的國家股市都大漲：
1994年納入印度指數，印度指數大漲35%；
1996年納入台灣指數，大漲48%；
1996年納入香港指數，大漲37%
1997年納入俄羅斯指數，大漲160%。
這次如果真的A股要納入到新興市場的話，勢必會擠壓到同樣是新興市場的台股能分配到的資金，所以也自然出現外資這陣子一直賣的結果，好在現在暫時不給加入，所以外資又回來買台股，台灣股市暫時逃過一劫。
全球基金有80%以上會參照MSCI指數決定資金配置。