In a sign of strong demand, Morgan Stanley's index subsidiary MSCI priced its offering of 14 million shares at $18, a 20% premium to its originally proposed $14-$16 range. MSCI is considered the pioneer of international equity indices and risk analytic tools. It maintains several flagship indices, including the MSCI EAFE (Europe, Australia and Far East), MSCI World and MSCI Emerging Markets Indices, which are estimated to have over $3 trillion benchmarked against them. Morgan Stanley acted as the sole book-running manager for the IPO, and the stock is expected to commence trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "MXB" on Thursday.
