The Markit iBoxx USD Emerging Markets Sovereigns index family has been introduced in response to increased investor interest in emerging market debt and complements Markit’s GEMX index, launched in 2008, which tracks the performance of emerging market sovereign debt denominated in local currency, said the company.
The index family includes a liquid tradable index which will be used as the basis for index-linked tradable products such as exchange traded funds (ETFs).
According to Markit, the benchmark index comprises 37 emerging market countries and 190 bonds, and is rebalanced monthly.
The tradable index comprises 20 countries and 36 bonds which are selected quarterly from the benchmark index based on the total amount outstanding for each country in the benchmark index and the latest quarterly bond trading volumes.
Markit managing director and head of Indices Stephan Flagel said the new Markit iBoxx USD Emerging Markets Sovereigns index family complements Markit’s existing indices and positions Markit as a leading emerging market index provider.
