CRISIL to come up with credit indices to track bond market

Equities research and rating agency CRISIL will soon come up with credit indices that will track differently rated long-term and short-term bonds and is likely to facilitate penetration of corporate bond market in the country.

"We will come up with credit indices that will track bond market. The various indices, we are planing to come up with are AAA rated long-term bond index, AAA rated short-term bond index, AA rated long-term bond index and AA rated short-term bond index," Director-Capital Markets of CRISIL, Tarun Bhatia said here today.

He, however, said that the proposed indices would not be launched at one time and would be operational in phases. "We will start with AAA rated bonds and then come to AA rated bond indices," he added. As per the research agency, these indices will help in penetration of corporate bond market in the country, which otherwise is less developed.

The rating firm will also come up with some sovereign indices that will track 10 year gilts along with T-Bills (treasury bills). "Under sovereign indices, we will soon come up with a 10 year Gilt index, one year T-Bill index, 91 Day T-Bill index and composite T-Bill index," Bhatia said, without divulging the timeline for launch of these indices.

Currently, CRISIL maintains CRISIL long-term debt index, short-term debt index, liquid fund index, balanced fund index, MIP blended fund index, debt hybrid 75:25 index, and debt hybrid 60:40 index among others.

As per the research firm, more than 80 customised CRISIL indices are used for benchmarking by mutual funds, insurance companies, pension funds and corporates.