Index funds and diversification in Saudi Arabia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how best to diversify in Saudi Arabia's stock market. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis proceeds as follows: first, repeated sampling with replacement from a sample of 62 actual companies' monthly stock returns from January 2001 to June 2006 is used to simulate the performance of various portfolio sizes; second, a modified Statman diversification model is used to evaluate the performance of index funds in Saudi Arabia and thus assess the size of a diversified portfolio. Findings – This paper reaches two important findings: first, due to high index funds fees, investors are better off diversifying by purchasing stocks directly from the stock market; second, a portfolio containing five randomly chosen stocks is sufficient to achieve diversification. Originality/value – This paper provides useful recommendations on how to achieve diversification. Additionally, it highlights the fact that index funds are too expensive to be useful in Saudi Arabia.