Technical factors support corporates

Between the start of the year and 5 August the return from the gilt market as a whole was negative by just under 2.5%. To some extent this disappointing performance was due to investors factoring in the possibility of higher interest rates later this year. This seems logical, and as the consequent implications for corporate borrowers would be unwelcome, it might have been reasonable to expect even worse returns from non-government issues, the degree of underperformance inverting with the level of rating. In reality, according to the SBC Warburg indices, every broad category from triple-A t...