USD denominated securities

The increasing need to monitor Asian USD bond portfolios led Asian financial services and institutions to create their own performance indices. One such index is HSBC's Asian US Dollar Bond Index (ADBI), comprising 76 USD denominated issues spread over eight markets, exclusive of Japanese debt securities.

Daily ADBI reports and a more comprehensive description of the index methodology are available at the web link below.

Local currency securities

For local currency denominated bonds, the International Index Company (IIC) launched a family of Asian bond indices, the iBoxx ABF, consists of eight local currency bond indices and one aggregate Pan Asia index denominated in US dollars. The indices were launched in conjunction with the implementation of the second phase of the EMEAP’s Asian Bond Fund Initiative (ABF2), and used as benchmark indices that the 9 ABF funds will closely track. Historical data is provided in our Asia Bond Indicators.

Another regional index is HSBC’s Asian Local Bond Index (ALBI), which measures the total return of a bond portfolio consisting of high quality, liquid local currency denominated bonds in Asia ex-Japan. The HSBC ALBI sub-indices calculate performance in their respective local currencies while the overall regional ALBI index is measured in US dollars.

JPMorgan also publishes a local emerging market index for bonds, the “Government Bond Index – Emerging Markets” (GBI-EM). It tracks the performance of local currency government bonds issued by 19 emerging markets. ASEAN+3 markets in the index are: PRC; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Korea, Rep. of; Malaysia; Singapore; and Thailand.

A number of markets have also developed their own bond indices. The links below provide a summary. Index levels may be accessed through individual market home pages.