Thomson Financial has released its quarterly health check on the markets.

For the first quarter of 2008, the Asia-Pacific debt market totalled US$48.1bn, down 34.2% from the corresponding figure for the same quarter last year. These figures include Australia, but exclude Japanese debt. This was the lowest first quarter figure since Q1 2003. At the current rate, it seems improbable that the market will reach last year's record US$273.9bn volume.

Despite the overall debt downturn, government bonds rose 28% while sovereign bonds increased by 1.2%. Meanwhile, China's booming IPO and equities market sustained gains with A-share debut offerings of 22 companies showing average increases of 94.1%. This represents proceeds of US$7.6bn, a 36.6% drop from US$12.1bn for the same period in 2007. Chinese listed firms which listed in domestic exchanges last year had a 113.6% average increase based on their share prices.

"Clearly the market's not as hot as it was last year," said Hubert Tse (pictured), managing director of Yuan Tai PRC Attorneys: "However, it's still in pretty good shape. We're optimistic about the forecast for the next few years and that there will still be plenty of work."

The bullish sentiment for Asia CBs reached a high point when Chinese petroleum giant Sinopec generated the largest CB offering on record - US$4.2bn. This amount helped China achieve the number two position after the US in the value of CBs issued. All regions other than Asia-Pacific/Japan suffered year-on-year declines. Asia captured over a quarter of the CBs issued globally, with the region's volatile equities market and a growing hedge fund industry fuelling this appetite for CBs.