Pakistan among countries set to feature in JPMorgan’s new frontier debt index

JPMorgan is finalising plans for a new index to track frontier market local currency bonds, investors consulted on the details told Reuters, as the bank looks to satisfy a growing appetite for riskier and more diversified high-yield debt. Six leading money managers who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said the bank’s engagements with them reached an advanced stage in the second half of last year. The proposed index includes 20 to 25 countries, with Egypt, Vietnam, Kenya, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh having the largest “weightings”, three of the managers said. The move, which comes 15 years after the Wall Street bank launched its hard-currency NEXGEM frontier index, coincides with the year-long slump in the dollar and some extraordinary recent rallies in markets like Argentina, Ecuador and Uganda.