S&P Dow Jones will move Qatar and the UAE from frontier indexes and upgrade them to emerging markets on September 22, the company said.

S&P's decision to re-classify the two countries and also Greece as emerging markets was announced last October following a consultation with clients and comes after similar moves by rival index provider MSCI.

"This year's major changes to the S&P Global BMI indices are the reclassification of Greece to Emerging status from Developed status, as well as the reclassification of Qatar and UAE from Frontier status to Emerging status," S&P said in a statement.

MSCI moved Greece to emerging markets from its developed indexes last November. It also re-classified Qatar and the UAE as emerging markets at the end of May this year.

S&P said Greece and Qatar would carry weights of 0.8 and 0.9 per cent of the S&P emerging markets BMI index while the UAE would have 1.0 per cent. That compares with a 24 percent weight for China and 11.3 per cent for Brazil, the company added. - Reuters