Frontier bonds rally on Trump tariff pause, Sri Lanka adds more than 6 cents

LONDON, April 10 (Reuters) - International bonds issued by smaller, riskier emerging markets rallied on Thursday, after U.S. President Donald Trump's stunning decision to pause the hefty duties he had just imposed on dozens of countries.

Sri Lanka's dollar-denominated bonds - which had been at the forefront of recent declines - rallied more than 6 cents, while Nigeria saw its debt rally 5 cents, Tradeweb data showed. Angola and Pakistan gained around 3 cents.

"There is uncertainty about the uncertainty," said Marco Ruijer, hard currency portfolio manager of emerging market debt team at William Blair, pointing to a cause of the recent market volatility.

Ecuador, among the weakest performers in the benchmark EMBIG Diversified .JPMEGD so far this year with a 15% decline at the index level through Monday, saw its 3030 bond XS2214237807=TE rise over 4 cents to 57 cents on the dollar. El Salvador's 2035 US283875AN23=TE also gained over 4 cents.

Debt issued by so-called frontier markets had suffered some big falls and sharp swings since Trump announced sweeping tariffs last Wednesday. The latest gains see many of the bonds claw back around half of the losses they had suffered since April 2.