In Tuesday's Wall Street Journal Fund Track column, Sam Mamudi gathered thoughts from fund managers and analysts on the impact of possible changes in the composition of MSCI Barra's Emerging Markets Index. MSCI is looking into to making as many as five country changes to the index, with South Korea and Israel possibly getting ugraded to developed-markets status and entering the MSCI EAFE Index. Meanwhile, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates could become part of the Emerging Markets Index.

"Upgrading Korea would make the emerging markets a more risky investment because it's a stable market," Wyatt Crumpler, who co-manages the American Beacon Emerging Markets Fund, was quoted as saying.

For his part, Vanguard chief investment officer Gus Sauter told Mamudi that the fund firm is "investigating" how it would go about any required sale of South Korean holdings.

Others quoted in the article include Morningstar analyst William Rocco and senior analyst Gregg Wolper.  

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