Standard & Poors (S&P) on Thursday launched an index for frontier equity markets containing the largest and most liquid stocks from over 30 developing markets across the world.

Frontier equity markets are those, which are relatively small and illiquid even by emerging market standards. The index, S&P/IFCG Extended Frontier 150, is designed to meet the needs of those investors who seek to expand into markets with potential to give returns similar or greater than other better known developed and emerging markets, S&P VP (Index Services) Alka Banerjee said.

The index is the first fully investable index for frontier equity markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Baltics, Africa, Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean. Frontier markets were previously not considered for investment by fund managers as they were dominated by companies too small and illiquid to trade.