The Indian government listed its first ever bond index on the London Stock Exchange on Friday, opening the country’s debt markets to the rest of the world.
Launched in collaboration with global index and data provider FTSE Russell, the index will consist of Indian rupee-denominated government bonds – a first of its kind for India. The seeds of this were sown back in November 2015 when the two countries signed a collaboration during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United Kingdom.
“It will turn out to be quite significant. If you look at the Indian market, it is around $1.7 trillion, of which $770 million is government issuances,” Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairwoman of the State Bank of India (SBI), told CNBC Friday.
She explained that until now international investors had no transparent benchmark or index on which to base their decisions regarding investment in these papers, and therefore the expectation is that this index will give them that ability to take those decisions.
