(April 14): Asia’s primary dollar bond market is staging its busiest session in more than three months as borrowers scramble to capitalise on a fragile pause in Middle East hostilities.
At least four borrowers — including Indonesian lender PT Bank Negara Indonesia and Korea Ocean Business Corp — have mandated banks for new deals in the coming days, marking the most crowded pipeline since early January.
Three issuers, including Incheon International Airport Corp, are already marketing US dollar-denominated notes on Tuesday, underscoring a rebound in primary activity after weeks of muted issuance. The Iran conflict has sharply curtailed issuance, leaving volumes in 2026 down 3% from a year earlier, despite a 24% surge in the first two months.
The sudden rush of activity points to a window of relative stability that market participants had been waiting for after volatility driven by geopolitical risks. Sentiment is also shifting rapidly in the secondary market, where the cost of insuring investment-grade debt tightened by one to two basis points on Tuesday, extending a decline from a day earlier, according to a trader.
For investors, the compression in credit spreads suggests growing confidence that the worst of the recent volatility has been priced in. While diplomatic talks over the weekend in Islamabad ended in deadlock, the tenuous ceasefire has provided the relative stability primary markets were waiting for.
See also: Pakistan in talks with Saudi Arabia, China after UAE’s loan move
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