ID Join the waitlist →
MonarqiLabs / Glossary / MSCI free float
Glossary

MSCI free float

MSCI free float is the share of a listed company's outstanding shares that MSCI treats as available for purchase by international investors on public markets. MSCI uses a Foreign Inclusion Factor (FIF), which it treats as a proxy for free float, to scale each stock's market capitalisation in its indexes.

free float MSCI

Why it matters

A stock's weight in an MSCI index depends on its free-float-adjusted market value, so a company with few shares available to foreign investors gets a small weight, even when its total market value is large. Index funds that track MSCI benchmarks buy and sell according to these weights, so a change in free float, or a stock being added or removed, can trigger passive buying or selling. MSCI said in January 2026 that more granular and reliable shareholding data was needed before it could make a robust free-float and investability assessment. Under the interim freeze, MSCI blocked increases in foreign inclusion factors and share numbers, so a stock whose free float rose could not gain index weight.

Examples on the IDX

On 27 January 2026 MSCI announced an interim freeze on Indonesian securities, with no additions to its Investable Market Indexes and a reassessment if transparency progress was insufficient by May 2026. On 20 April 2026 MSCI kept the freeze in place and acknowledged reforms by OJK, IDX and KSEI, including disclosure of holders above 1% and a roadmap to a 15% minimum free float. On 23 June 2026 MSCI did not reclassify Indonesia, but said consistent implementation mattered and flagged its November 2026 review.

Scenarios that use this term

MSCI Free-Float Freeze · MSCI Quarterly: Indonesian Additions · MSCI Quarterly: Deletion Wave

Sources

  1. Free-Float Adjustment in Global Equities: A Two-Decade Review, MSCI, 2024-01-10; accessed 2026-10-11.
  2. Results of consultation on free float assessment of Indonesian securities, MSCI, 2026-01-27; accessed 2026-10-11.
  3. Update on free float assessment of Indonesian securities, MSCI, 2026-04-20; accessed 2026-10-11.
  4. Results of the MSCI 2026 Market Classification Review, MSCI, 2026-06-23; accessed 2026-10-11.
  5. Update on the treatment of Indonesia and Turkey securities in the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes, MSCI, 2026-07-06; accessed 2026-10-11.