Funds, private banks dump bonds over Fed signals

Portfolio managers and private banking clients were behind this week’s haphazard sell-off of Asia sovereigns and corporate bonds, caught out by the US Federal Reserve’s signals to taper off quantitative easing. Bond traders and strategists say both high-yield and high-grade bonds – ranging from emerging market issues from countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines to those from leading Asian banks and conglomerates – had suffered. Amid perhaps the biggest sell-off since Oct…