An index that will track purely Chinese bonds was launched in Shanghai on Friday, targeting the growing number of international investors wanting a piece of the world's third biggest fixed-income market. Analysts hailed the new gauge as a key step in opening up China's US$12 trillion debt market and predicted it would provide a much-needed boost to investment from overseas. It is the first China-only bond index to be rolled out by IHS Markit and ChinaBond, and will initially track 368 bonds issued by the government and the country's three "policy banks".