Bloomberg announces indices expansion

Bloomberg has announced the new Bloomberg Commodity Murban Crude Oil Index, aimed at tracking the performance of rolling futures on Murban Crude Oil. The new offering is a subindex of the flagship Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM) and reflects the return of underlying commodity futures USD price movements only.

While the primary route for exposure to global Crude Oil markets has been via WTI and Brent Crude Oil futures, Murban Crude Oil futures were launched in 2021 as a physically delivered contract at Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. As noted in new commodity insight research by Bloomberg’s index research team, the geography of demand, crude grade and transportation dynamics of Murban Crude Oil futures not only offers investors with WTI and Brent Crude Oil exposure diversification benefits, but also the ability to better target geopolitical risk and regional growth dynamics.

“Alongside WTI and Brent, the launch of our index now enables financial investors to gain global exposure of crude oil markets. The Bloomberg Commodity Murban Crude Oil Index has the ability to better target geopolitical risk and regional growth dynamics and further generate returns from improved roll yield,” said Jigna Gibb, head of commodities & crypto index product, Bloomberg Index Services Limited (BISL).

Bloomberg says the new index is the latest extension of the Bloomberg Commodity Index, which was launched in 1998 and introduced to the market the first explicit focus on market liquidity and capping mechanism constraining individual sectors and preserving a balance over time. BCOM provides broad-based exposure to commodities, and no single commodity or commodity sector dominates the index. Rather than being driven by micro-economic events affecting one commodity market or sector, the diversified commodity exposure of BCOM potentially reduces volatility in comparison with non-diversified commodity investments, added the company.

Bloomberg Terminal clients can access the index using ticker BCOMMC Index <GO> and relevant fact sheets, methodology and research for the new index is available on the BCOM Publications page. The launch also includes a Total Return version of the index available at BCOMMCTR Index <GO>.

Bloomberg says it provides an independent, transparent approach to indexing for customers across the globe. Bloomberg clients can access available indices on the Bloomberg Terminal and all research and methodology for the indices are available at Bloombergindices.com.