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Moody's Investors Service says that its Asian Liquidity Stress Index (LSI) rose to 28.5% in November from 27.4% in October.
The increase came as the number of rated high-yield companies with the weakest speculative-grade liquidity score (SGL-4) increased to 35 from 34 while the number of rated high-yield companies decreased to 123 from 124.
The index measures the percentage of high-yield companies with SGL-4 scores as a proportion of high-yield corporate family ratings and increases when speculative-grade liquidity appears to deteriorate.
"The November decline marks the fourth straight month in which the Asian LSI has deteriorated, bringing it to a level last seen in December 2012," says Brian Grieser, a Moody's Vice President and Senior Analyst.
"When combined with trends witnessed -- which includes downgrades consistently outpacing upgrades and the number of issuers with a negative leaning outlook rising -- the situation continues to highlight a broad weakening of the credit profiles of high-yield issuers across the region," adds Grieser.
However, the November index remains well below the record high of 37% reached in December 2008 amid the global financial crisis.
Grieser was speaking on conclusions contained in Moody's just-released report, Asian Liquidity Stress Index, a monthly publication.
The liquidity stress sub-index for North Asian high-yield issuers was 30.1% in November, up marginally compared to 28.8% in October 2015 and 24.0% in December 2014. Within this portfolio, the Chinese sub-index remained at 28.1%, the Chinese high-yield property sub-index remained at 24.3% and the Chinese high-yield industrial sub-index remained at 33.3%.
The liquidity stress sub-index for South and Southeast Asian high-yield issuers weakened to 26.0% in November from 25.5% in October. The Indonesian sub-index decreased to 17.4% in November from 20.8% in October. This reading reflects the number of Indonesian companies with SGL-4 scores reduced by one to 4 and the total number of high-yield Indonesian companies also reduced by one to 23.
Moody's further notes that rated high-yield bond issuance picked up in November after no recorded issuance in September and October. However, Asian high-yield issuance in 2015 remains at the lowest level since 2012.
In addition, in November, Moody's took six downgrade and two upgrade rating actions closing out the month with a downgrade/upgrade ratio of 3.00x, continuing the trend that has seen downgrades exceed upgrades every quarter since Q2 2013.
