Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, today announced that National Bank Financial Inc. will begin contributing bond pricing for the calculation of the S&P/TSX Canadian Bond Index commencing Oct. 5, 2006.
National Bank Financial Inc. will contribute bond pricing in addition to the existing providers, CIBC World Markets, RBC Capital Markets, BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., Casgrain & Company Limited, Desjardins Securities Inc., Laurentian Bank Securities Inc., Merrill Lynch Canada Inc., and TD Securities Inc. This brings the total number of price providers to nine.
"National Bank Financial Inc., a leader in government, corporate, and municipal debt securities, is very pleased to be part of the broad contributor based S&P/TSX Canadian Bond Index and looks forward to it becoming the industry's leading bond index," said Michael Edey, Managing Director of Fixed Income at National Bank Financial Inc.
The multiple dealer prices are combined into a single blended price, which is calculated at end of day, for each index bond. These blended prices are used to calculate the S&P/TSX Canadian Bond Index levels. The participation of a broad range of price contributors provides market participants with a more accurate measure of the performance of the Canadian bond market. In a market where exchange-traded pricing information is unavailable, blended prices for a broad spectrum of Canadian government and corporate bonds aids the price discovery process by providing a more representative gauge of security valuation.
"Additional price providers help facilitate the transparency of the fixed income marketplace in Canada," said Steve Rive, Vice President of Canadian Index Services at Standard & Poor's. "The S&P/TSX Canadian Bond Index is an important tool for investors because of its independence and breadth of pricing sources," he added. "It's the only fixed income index in Canada offering investors such a comprehensive view of the investment-grade segment of the market."
S&P/TSX Canadian Bond Index data is offered by TSX Datalinx. For more information about features and pricing visit www.tsx.com/bondindices or contact TSX Datalinx Subscriber Services at 416-947-4452 or marketdata@tsxdatalinx.com.
S&P/TSX Canadian Bond IndexNumbering 932 issues with a total market value of over C$662 billion on Sept. 29, 2006, the S&P/TSX Canadian Bond Index is designed to broadly represent the market performance of investment-grade bonds issued by Canadian companies and by issuers in the government sector. Calculated daily and rebalanced monthly, the Index is a market value-weighted average of total bond returns which can be divided into over 300 standard sub-indices based on credit rating, issuer, maturity, and industry sector (Corporates). Industry sectors are based on the widely accepted Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS(R)) maintained jointly by Standard & Poor's and MSCI, permitting direct comparison between equity and fixed income sectors in Canada and around the world.
The S&P/TSX Canadian Bond Index is the first index of its kind in Canada to feature multi-dealer pricing for index-valuation purposes as a bond must have a minimum of two price providers to be eligible for inclusion in the Index. Governed by a published, rules-based methodology, the Index is maintained by the S&P/TSX Canadian Bond Index Committee. The S&P/TSX Canadian Bond Index reflects user needs through consultation with a broadly representative Advisory Panel, which includes a variety of members of the investment community. For more information about the methodology and governance of the S&P/TSX Canadian Bond Index visit www.canadabondindices.standardandpoors.com.
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