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Growth-hungry bourses beat a path to Singapore
January 16, 2014--Since it was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819, Singapore has been known as a commodity trading centre in Asia, first in rubber and tin.
Now exchanges are beating a path to the city-state as they tap the region’s fast-growing commodity and energy markets.
DB-Synthetic Equity & Index Strategy-Asia-Asia-Pac ETF+ Quarterly Directory -Q4 2013 ETPs
January 16, 2014--The Deutsche Bank Asia-Pac ETF+ Quarterly Directory -Q4 2013 ETPs is now available. This document includes all Asia-Pacific listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded commodities (ETCs).
The directory is organized by country and asset-class-related sub sections. Within each sub section it has been sorted by ETP issuer by alphabetical order and by AUM in descending order. A number of key information points per product have been included in order to enable the reader to get an overview in their own area of interest. Among the key numeric information we include avg. daily turnover, assets under management, and cash flows (all in $US).
Publication of the draft of the "Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors"-Japan's Stewardship Code
To promote sustainable growth of companies through investment and dialogue
January 15, 2014--The Council of Experts Concerning the Japanese Version of the Stewardship Code (Chairman: Hiroyuki Kansaku, Professor of Graduate Schools for Law and Politics/Faculty of Law, The University of Tokyo) has now published the draft of "Japan's Stewardship Code" and started to call for public comments in English.
1. Subject Document of the Call for Public Comments
The draft of the "Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors" Japan’s Stewardship Code (PDF396KB)
IMF Working paper-Fiscal Vulnerabilities and Risks from Local Government Finance in China
January 15, 2014--Summary: China weathered the global financial crisis better than most, thanks to a large and timely stimulus. This stimulus, however, was mainly in the form of off-budget infrastructure spending and thus not visible in the headline fiscal data. We construct a time series for the augmented fiscal deficit and debt-augmented to include off-budget activity-that better illustrates the counter-cyclical role of fiscal policy.
The results also show that the augmented fiscal deficit and debt are both considerably higher than the headline government data suggest. Nonetheless, at around 45 percent of GDP, the augmented debt is still at a manageable level.
view the IMF Working paper-Fiscal Vulnerabilities and Risks from Local Government Finance in China
China's finances weaker than data show, IMF report says
International Monetary Fund warns of 'macroeconomic shock' unless Beijing comes up with a better system to monitor local government debt
January 15, 2014--The mainland's fiscal position is weaker than official data shows but not significant enough to cause alarm, the IMF said in a report released yesterday
The International Monetary Fund also warned that the mainland was now "more vulnerable to a macroeconomic shock" because of its higher debt and bigger deficit.
S.Korea plans price band limits on futures, options trading
January 15, 2014--South Korea's financial regulator said on Wednesday that it plans to impose price band limits on futures and options trading after a local brokerage suffered crippling losses on erroneously placed options transactions last month.
Unlisted Hanmag Securities' capital was wiped out after the brokerage erroneously placed a series of transactions on KOSPI 200 options in December, putting it in serious jeopardy. Although Hanmag is a small brokerage and the orders did not have serious consequences for the broader market, the regulator is seeking to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
ETF FUM hits $10 billion
January 14, 2014--The Australian exchange-traded fund (ETF) market has reached the $10 billion mark in assets under management (AUM), after about $235 million of new money flowed into the market in December.
According to the BetaShares "Australian ETF End of Year Review" for 2013, the market recorded its highest ever annual growth over the course of the year,with FUM increasing by $3.5 billion, or 55 per cent, to end the year at $10 billion.
BetaShares managing director Alex Vynokur said international equities emerged as the key trend for the year, with about $1 billion flowing towards funds offering exposure to developed equities markets.
China, Hong Kong in 'Final Stretch' on Fund Mutual Recognition
January 14, 2014--Hong Kong is in the "final stretch" of talks with China on mutual recognition of funds, which will pave the way for cross-border sales, said Alexa Lam, deputy chief executive officer at the city's Securities and Futures Commission.
Both sides reached broad agreement on the scope of the project, including what funds will qualify, eligibility requirements of the managers, disclosure and investor protection, Lam said at a financial forum in Hong Kong today.
Commercial Banks May Issue Corporate Bonds at SSE to Replenish Capital
January 14, 2014--On November 8, 2013, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Commercial Banks Issuing Corporate Bonds to Replenish Capital" (the "Guiding Opinions" for short), which allows listed and to-be-listed commercial banks to issue corporate bonds at exchanges to replenish capital.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has also recently released the "Notice on Commercial Banks Issuing Corporate Bonds to Replenish Capital and the Issues Related to Listing, Trading and Transfer of the Bonds" (the "Notice" for short), which makes specific provisions on listing and trading, transfer, information disclosure, and other issues related to corporate bonds issued by commercial banks for capital replenishment at the SSE. The issuance of the "Guiding Opinions" and the "Notice" symbolizes that channels of commercial banks for capital replenishment have been expanded to the exchange markets, which is of positive significance for promoting the innovation of capital instruments in the banking sector and improving the integration of China's bond market.
IMF Working paper-Potential Growth in Emerging Asia
January 14, 2013-- Summary: Using three distinct approaches-statistical filtering, production function, and multivariate model- this paper estimates potential growth for China, India, and five ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) during 1993-2013.
The main findings include: (i) both China and India have recently exhibited a slowdown in potential growth, largely reflecting a decline of total factor productivity (TFP) growth; (ii) by contrast, trend growth for the five ASEAN countries has been rather stable and might even have increased marginally, with the notable exception of Vietnam;(iii) over the longer term, demographic factors will be much more supportive in India and some ASEAN economies than in China, where working-age population should start shrinking, with the overall dependency ratio climbing by the end of this decade.
Improving or sustaining potential growth calls for broad structural reforms.