NSE Indices launches new Nifty Bharat Bond Index

New Delhi: NSE's subsidiary NSE Indices has said it has launched one more index under the Nifty Bharat Bond Index series.

The Bharat Bond Index series follows a target maturity date structure wherein each index in the series measures the performance of a portfolio of ‘AAA-rated’ bonds issued by government-owned entities maturing in a specific year.

Nifty Bharat Bond Index -- April 2033 - has been launched within the Nifty Bharat Bond Index series, according to a release by NSE on Thursday.

In December 2019, NSE Indices launched the first two indices in the Bharat Bond Index with maturities in April 2023 and April 2030, and in July 2020, further two indices with maturities in April 2025 and April 2031 were launched.

"The upcoming Bharat Bond ETF which is sixth in the Bharat Bond ETF series will track the newly launched Nifty BHARAT Bond Index maturing in 2033. The first Bharat Bond ETFs tracking the Nifty Bharat Bond indices were launched in December 2019 with initial assets under management of around Rs 12,000 crore," Mukesh Agarwal, CEO, NSE Indices, said.

He further said that over past three years, the overall assets under management of all Bharat Bond ETFs have now grown to more than Rs 52,000 crore. The success of this product is due to the unique structure of the index with attributes such as high credit quality of issuers, high predictability of returns, liquidity as they are exchange-traded and high tax efficiency.

The Nifty Bharat Bond Index – April 2033 has a base date of November 30, 2022, and a base value of 1,000. The index will be rebalanced/reconstituted at the end of every calendar quarter.

The launch of the Bharat Bond ETFs has also opened up the target maturity date index funds category with overall assets under management of more than Rs 1.30 lakh crore. Along with the existing five target maturity indices, the launch of the new Bharat Bond index maturing in 2033 will provide more investment choices to fixed-income investors and will help create a ladder structure of various maturities, Agarwal added.