ICRA launches fixed income indices for debt markets

With an aim to create more depth in the Indian debt market, ICRA Management Consulting Services (IMaCS), an arm of ICRA, today launched a set of four fixed income indices including one on corporate bonds.
ICRA Gilt Indices, ICRA Liquid Indices, ICRA Corporate Bond Indices and ICRA Composite Debt Indices, the four indices launched, would help asset managers and financial services companies make objective analysis and provide comprehensive benchmarking of debt portfolios.
"ICRA fixed income indices will enable asset managers and investors with effective benchmarks to measure the risk returns dynamics of the fixed income markets," IMaCS managing director and CEO Sanjeev Sinha told reporters here.

The indices, which are representative of the most liquid securities in the market, are diversified covering various issuers and sectors.
The rebalancing would be every fortnight in case of liquid indices and on a monthly basis for the others.
"We have set up a internal committee to maintain the indices and it is a robust system where the valuation and prices will be captured on a daily basis," IMaCS head (fixed income) Ashwini Kumar said.

The ICRA Gilt Indices include short term, medium term, long term and composite gilt as well as 10-year gilt indices. These would help asset managers and investors track the performance of maturity profiles of their respective portfolios, in terms of the G-Sec performance.

On the other hand, ICRA Liquid Indices that includes CBLO (collateralise borrowing and lending obligation) index, aim to represent the performance of the short-term securities with maturity up to 91 days.
The firm's corporate bond indices would track the performance of the short-term 'AAA', medium-term 'AAA', long-term 'AAA' rated corporate debt securities.
In the next month, IMaCS also plans to launch Composite Debt indices, short term composite index, hybrid indices as well as customised index, it said.