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India’s Bloomberg Bond Index Entry to Attract $5B+

Inclusion of India in the Bloomberg Bond Index is expected to attract investment exceeding $5 billion…reports Asian Lite News

The decision to include Indian bonds in the Bloomberg Emerging Market Index, coming after the decision of JP Morgan to include India in the JP Morgan’s Emerging Market Bond Index, is a vote of confidence in the Indian economy, says V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Inclusion of India in the Bloomberg Bond Index is expected to attract investment exceeding $5 billion. This comes on top of the expected investment of around $20 billion in the JP Morgan EM Bond Fund, he said.

He said that including India in the EM Bond Fund is a declaration that India’s financial market is mature and stable. This is also a vote of confidence in India’s macro financial stability, he added.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities, said Bloomberg has proposed to add Indian government bonds to its various indices starting from January 2025. Bloomberg said it will include India Fully Accessible Route bonds in the Bloomberg Emerging Market Local Currency Government Index and related indices in a phased manner over a 10-month period, starting January 31, 2025.

Indian FAR bonds will be included in the Bloomberg EM Local Currency Government indices with an initial weight of 10 per cent of their full market value on January 31, 2025. Within the market cap weighted version of the index, India is expected to be the third largest country after China and South Korea, he said.

Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Friday ordered Bloomberg Television Production Services India Pvt Ltd (Bloomberg) to take down the defamatory article published against ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEE) on February 21.

In relief to ZEE, Additional District Judge, Harjyot Singh Bhalla held that it had made out a prima facie case for passing ad interim ex-parte orders of injunction and directed Bloomberg to take down the defamatory article from its platform within one week of receipt of the order.

Bloomberg was also restrained from posting, circulating, or publishing the article on any online or offline platform till the next date of hearing.

ZEE, in its suit, argued that the Bloomberg article which mentioned details relating to the corporate governance and business operations of ZEE, were inaccurate in nature and led to a 15 per cent drop in share price of the company, eroding investor wealth. It said that the “false and factually incorrect” article was published, with a pre-meditated and mala fide intention to defame the company.

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Bloomberg apologises after Johnson’s anti-China speech

The former UK Prime Minister have reportedly described China as a “coercive autocracy”, reports Asian Lite News

Billionaire financier Mike Bloomberg was forced to apologise to hundreds of guests at a major Asian business event in Singapore this week after complaints about a speech by former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson that criticised China.

Johnson, the after-dinner speaker at the flagship Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on Tuesday, was said to have described China as a “coercive autocracy” to about 500 Asian businesspeople, investors and diplomats, the Guardian reported.

While his comments would not be regarded as controversial in the UK, where there is concern over Beijing’s human rights record, approach to Taiwan and closeness to Russia, the majority of Asian countries are much more favourably inclined towards China and share strong economic and diplomatic ties.

In remarks that may alarm the incumbent Rishi Sunak-led government and bolster his own support among Conservative MPs, Johnson is also said to have announced that he was taking a “temporary hiatus” from the frontline of British politics, suggesting he still harbours ambitions of returning to power.

Bloomberg, who invited Johnson and whose organisation was hosting the event in partnership with the Singapore government, acknowledged at the conference on Thursday that some attendees may have been “insulted or offended” by the former leader’s remarks, the Guardian reported.

But the businessman, a former mayor of New York and friend of Johnson, clarified that they were “his thoughts and his thoughts alone”.

“To those of you who were upset and concerned by what the speaker said, you have my apologies,” he added.

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