Broad Market totals £976bn

In this first of a weekly series, a piece of analysis looks at a key fixed income index

Merrill Lynch bond index measures the performance of all gilt and corporate bonds in the UK. The Broad Market is worth £976bn as of the end of April and consists of 1,101 issues. It does not include insurance companies but is made up of 60% gilts and 40% non-gilts (or corporate credit). Over the past 12 months, gilts have increased from 45% to their current weighting, due to a large proportion of new issues this year. The chart includes three sub-segments of debt in the fixed income sector: lower tier 2, upper tier 2, and, tier 1, which makes up 3%, 1% and 1% of the index, respectively....