What Ward's clustering method tells about the four largest emerging equity markets?

Investing in stock market indices or ETFs could be more reasonable (and secure) for relatively new and incognisant investors who are personally unable to value of each stock–firm in a way. This paper attempts to group the well-known four largest emerging stock markets so-called BRIC or big-four economies namely Brazil, Russia, India and China based on return characteristics through Ward's hierarchical clustering method over the period of 2005 and 2015. Additionally, the first principle component (PCA) of the related indices is calculated and the abnormal variability is observed through control chart over time. Results indicate that Brazilian and Indian markets show more similarity over the studied period.