A Third of the UK’s Safest Bonds Are Giving Off Distress Signals
- Number of GBP bonds quoted below 80 jumps this year amid rout
- UK is at center of world’s worst bond selloff in decades
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It’s a sign of just how troubled a market is when the price of roughly a third of the safest sterling corporate bonds drops into distressed territory, compared to just one at the end of last year.
Bloomberg’s index of investment-grade sterling company bonds has 340 securities quoted at below 80 pence on the pound, the threshold generally used to indicate distressed territory. Over half the index consists of UK companies, including those of pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline, British Land Company PLC and British American Tobacco, some of which are quoted below the threshold.