Singapore bond market gets boost with Markit indices

First time Singapore corporate bonds tracked.

In a release, Markit, a leading, global financial information services company, announced the launch of the Markit iBoxx SGD, a family of bond indices designed to track the performance of sovereign and corporate debt denominated in Singapore dollars (SGD). These are the first bond indices to include comprehensive and detailed coverage of the SGD corporate bond market.

The launch of the Markit iBoxx SGD indices comes at a time when Singapore’s positive economic outlook and high credit rating are attracting a growing investor base to its local debt markets. The SGD corporate bond market has grown by 130% over the past ten years to SG$113 billion in 2012. Last year, new issuance reached SG$31 billion.

Melvin Lee, senior vice-president at Fullerton Fund Management Company Ltd, said: “The new Markit iBoxx SGD index provides a useful reference for the SGD credit market, which had previously lacked a pure SGD corporate bond index. I am confident that this latest offering from Markit will be well received by SGD bond investors.”

Armins Rusis, managing director and global co-head of Information at Markit, said: “These new indices will aid price discovery in the fast-growing SGD bond market and provide investors with an independent reference tool to assess returns.

It follows the addition of SGD bonds to our bond pricing service last year and highlights our commitment to provide innovative information and solutions for customers active in the Asia-Pacific region.”