MSCI, the index provider used by leading investors across the world, has decided it needs a name change in Greater China. In a news release this morning the firm (which is no longer owned by Morgan Stanley, the MS in its title) said its Chinese business would henceforth be branded as  MSCI 明晟.

When I tweeted this @reutersJeremyG, one wag suggested  this meant “MSCI small-ladder-bigger-ladder-books-on-a-picnic-table”, which is what it indeed looks like to an untrained eye (like mine).  But it is actually Ming Sheng, which  apparently is supposed to symbolise “brightness and transparency, prosperity and splendour”.

Depending on how you look at it, August may not have been as bad a month for stocks as advertised. For the month as a whole, the MSCI all-country world stock index  lost more than 7.5 percent.  This was the worst performance since May last year, and the worst August since 1998.

But if you had bought in at the low on August 9, you would have gained  healthy 8.5 percent or so.