Sri Lanka has tumbled from best to worst in Asia’s dollar bond market, underscoring how fast the pandemic can chill sentiment toward weaker emerging-market assets.
The island nation’s notes lost about 20% in October after dropping 15.5% in September, marking two straight months of the biggest losses in the region, Bloomberg Barclays indexes show. That’s a stark shift from earlier this year, when the securities were Asia’s top performers in each of the three months through August.
The stumble comes after Moody’s Investors Service cut Sri Lanka’s sovereign rating deeper into junk in September, citing risks from a coronavirus-induced shock