No immediate impact from Russia sanctions on bond index rebalancing – JPMorgan

Ukrainian servicemen inspect a damaged vehicle, at the site of a skirmish with Russian troops, after Russia launched a major military operation against Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 26, 2022. REUTERS / Valentine Ogirenko

February 26, 2022

LONDON (Reuters) – JPMorgan said there was no immediate impact from sanctions on Russia at the end of the month rebalancing emerging market bond indexes.

These metrics are key performance benchmarks for international investors on emerging market debt, so membership can help a country sell bonds and reduce costs borrow.

In a note published to clients, JPMorgan said there was “no immediate impact from sanctions on the February 28, 2022 rebalancing of the JPMorgan Emerging Markets indexes.”

“An updated Index Track will be published detailing any potential Index composition changes at the March 31, 2022 rebalancing as a result of updated sanctions directives.”

At the end of February, Russia had a 4.92% weighting in the JPMorgan EMBI+ bond index. It has a weight of 1.56% in the EMBI Global index and 1.63% in the EMBI Global Diversity index.

The US government extended restrictions on trading Russian government debt on Tuesday to punish Moscow for causing conflict with Ukraine.

The US Treasury Department has banned participation in the secondary market of Russian government bonds to be issued after March 1, in a move to limit Russia’s access to outside capital.

(Narrated by Tommy Wilkes Written by Saikat Chatterjee Edited by Mark Potter)