Mubasher: Five GCC countries topped by Saudi Arabia are to join JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s emerging-market bond indexes this month.

The inclusion lays the ground for billions of dollars in inflows into the securities, Bloomberg News reported.

The bond issues from Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporters, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait are expected to represent around 11.8% and 12% of the EMBI Global Diversified Index and the EMBI Global, respectively, the US investment bank said.

The indexes will track notes from 15 eligible issuers with about $119 billion face value, the New York-based news agency added.

“This provides more technical support to bond issuance for sovereigns in the region,” Shamaila Khan, the director of emerging-market debt at New York's AllianceBernstein, told Bloomberg.

Khan added that the risk return profiles in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain “look attractive”.

The approximate weight of Saudi Arabia in the EMBIGD index amounts to 3.3%, followed Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait with 2.8%, 2.6%, 2.3% and 0.7%, respectively, JPMorgan noted.

These figures are subject to change according to bond issues over the next two weeks, The US lender said, indicating that the GCC countries’ bonds will be added in phases over nine months.

The inclusion of GCC nations may generate inflows worth about $30 billion, resulting in tighter spreads and easier primary-market access, Jean-Michel Saliba, a London-based economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, predicted previously.