UK/GERMANY- iBoxx has launched a series of non-gilt bond indices for the Sterling market. The 644 indices cover sub-sovereigns, collateralised and corporate bonds and join the existing real-time Gilts indices.

iBoxx says that the new series means it now covers the entire market of investment-grade bonds denominated in Euro and Sterling. Similar global bond indices are planned for the future.

The four categories are divided into maturity and rating indices and those for the corporate sector are divided into financials and non-financials as well as into 10 economic and 18 market sectors.

iBoxx is a joint venture of ABN AMRO, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Morgan Stanley, UBS Warburg and Deutsche Börse.

The indices are calculated as price and total return indices and are rebalanced monthly. The seven investment banks submit their bid and ask quotes for each bond in the indices to Deutsche Börse who uses them to calculate the prices and indices in real time.