LONDON (Reuters) – JPMorgan said there was no immediate impact from sanctions on Russia at the month-end rebalancing of its emerging market bond indexes.
The indexes are key performance benchmarks for international investors in emerging market debt, so membership can help a country sell bonds and reduce its borrowing costs.
In a note published to clients, JPMorgan said there was “no immediate impact from sanctions on the February 28, 2022 rebalance of the JPMorgan Emerging Market indices.”
“An updated Index Watch will be published detailing any potential Index composition changes at the March 31, 2022 rebalance due to updated sanctions directives.”
At the end of February, Russia had a 4.92% weighting in the JPMorgan EMBI+ bond index. It had a 1.56% weighting in its EMBI Global index and 1.63% in its EMBI Global Diversified index.
The U.S. government broadened restrictions on trading of Russian government debt on Tuesday to punish Moscow for ratcheting up its conflict with Ukraine.
The U.S. Treasury prohibited participation in the secondary market for Russian government bonds that will be issued after March 1, in a move aimed at curbing Russia’s ability to access external funding.
(Reporting by Tommy Wilkes Writing by Saikat Chatterjee Editing by Mark Potter)
