The fixed-income market in India and China is opening up to foreign investment, an HSBC expert on the area said yesterday.

And Geoffrey Lunt, a senior Asian fixed income specialist for HSBC, said insurance and reinsurance firms should consider the countries as similar investments in the developed world struggle.

Mr Lunt, who is based in Hong Kong, said: “It’s something that is becoming increasingly important for global investors and there’s special interest in the subject at the moment because we live in a fairly dangerous fixed-income world with low yields in developed markets and tight spreads.”

Mr Lunt said some parts of the developing world were less attractive — with major countries like Brazil suffering from slow economic growth and government finances “looking very rocky”.

But he said: “Asia is standing out somewhat as a haven of relative calm where economies generally are still growing at a decent rate and there are many improving situations such as India and Indonesia.

“I think investors have looked at Asian markets for a while — I think there was quite a lot of scepticism at the beginning of 2014.

“They’ve now taken another look at Asia — they’ve perhaps always understood the medium- to long-term opportunity but now I think they’re almost forced to start putting money there because of the lack of opportunities in other markets.”

Mr Lunt, who has worked for HSBC for more than a decade, has previously worked for a firm that manages funds for institutional investors in the UK and managed global funds for HSBC in London before moving to his current post in Hong Kong three years ago.

According to market experts, the global financial crisis has forced a reassessment of approaches to asset allocation and provided a new impetus to broaden investment portfolios.

The emergence of the Asian fixed income class came on the back of fiscal prudence and surplus savings — in contrast to the borrowing spree that preceded the economic crisis in the west.

The Asian investment world has grown rapidly over the past decade and is now around the same size as some of Europe’s largest bond markets — which has increased liquidity and opportunities for investors.

The Chinese bond market alone — once closed to foreign investment — is worth $5 trillion, while fiscal reforms in India and an expected six percent growth rate for this year were likely to make it more attractive to investors.

But the region still makes up a very small percentage of major global bond indices.

Mr Lunt said he would be speaking to representatives of major insurance and reinsurance firms in a bid to highlight the moneymaking opportunities available in Asia.

He added: “You have some of the most sophisticated and important investors in the world here, in the insurance business in particular and I think they are in the forefront of thinking about global markets and I hope this theme is going to resonate strongly.”

But he added it was hoped to target private investors as well.

Mr Lunt acknowledged that some investors were conservative.

But he said: “I think that’s true all over the world that some for whatever reason investors have to be more conservative others can be more innovative in their thinking and I guess it depends on their style as a company as much as their capital position, that type of thing, the types of insurance companies, the types of business they are underwriting.”

But he stressed that firms would not listen to advisers who suggested putting all their eggs in one basket and HSBC would not encourage that.

Mr Lunt said: “Actually having a small amount of these non-correlated markets which are opening up can both improve your yield and your risk-adjusted return and I think we are striking a chord with a number of big investors that might actually improve their risk adjusted returns given the lack of correlation.”

And he added: “As HSBC, we believe we have the ability to guide our global client base through this interesting but potentially risky markets and to uncover those opportunities while avoiding the pitfalls.”

Mr Lunt said: “We are very much hoping and expecting that this will be an idea that’s reaching it’s time and we expect much more activity on this front.”