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ASX Trading Outage
October 27, 2011--ASX Trade, the platform upon which various order books of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) operate, resumed trading at 2.00pm today after being halted just after 10.05am.
The market was halted due to a network connectivity issue that prevented participants from interacting with the trading platform.
ASX Trade markets closed today as normal and are expected to open at the regular time of 10:00 am tomorrow. The ASX 24 futures market operated normally throughout the day.
ASX’s technical team worked in conjunction with its technology provider – NASDAQ OMX – to resolve the issue.
Japan central bank expands monetary easing
October 27, 2011--Japan's central bank on Thursday kept its key interest rate at nearly zero and will expand the size of an asset buying program to lend stronger support to the economy.
The Bank of Japan's policy board decided unanimously at a one-day meeting to leave the overnight call rate target at zero to 0.1 percent.
It voted 8-1 to increase its asset purchase program by 5 trillion yen to 55 trillion yen ($723 billion). It will use the extra funds to buy Japanese government bonds, hoping that further monetary easing will offset the export-sapping strength of the yen.
Thai bourse lists gold-based ETF "KG965" on Oct 27
October 25, 2011--The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) will list K-Gold ETF, managed by Kasikorn Asset Management Co., Ltd., on its main board on October 27, under the ticker "KG965."
KG965, an open-end exchange-traded fund (ETF), has a policy to invest in
domestic gold bars of 96.5 percent purity which are kept in safe deposit.
"It is Thailand's first ETF tracking 96.5-percent gold bar, which is an accepted standard in Thailand's gold trading industry. I believe that this ETF is an alternative to meet investors' demand for those familiar with gold bar trading. Investors are able to access real-time trading through SET's reliable trading system and their brokers, and also have opportunities to get returns similar to investment in gold," said SET President Charamporn Jotikasthira.
TFEX issues guideline for the expiring series of gold futures and silver futures
October 25, 2011--The Thailand's Futures Exchange plc (TFEX), a subsidiary of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), issues a guideline for the settlement of expiring series of the gold and silver futures prices in case the derivatives market has to be closed prior to the last trading day of expiring contracts, or on the last trading day.
In such case, TFEX will employ the same procedure for the expiring series but
the reference prices from London Gold Market Fixing Limited will be the price on the last day the contract traded on TFEX.
Tokyo Stock Exchange Publish The Index Value Of TSE Home Price Index For August
October 25, 2011--TSE published the index value of TSE Home Price Index for August on October 25, 2011.
The index value of TSE Home Price Index (Used Condominium, Composite of Tokyo Metro Area) is 81.16 points.
The index value of TSE Home Price Index (Used Condominium, Tokyo) is 85 points. The index value of TSE Home Price Index (Used Condominium, Kanagawa) is 80.99 points. The index value of TSE Home Price Index (Used Condominium, Chiba) is 70.18. The index value of TSE Home Price Index (Used Condominium, Saitama) is 70.70 points.
Indian rupee rises on equities, euro; cbank policy awaited
October 25, 2011--The Indian rupee gained on Tuesday, buoyed by positive domestic equities and a steady euro, with all eyes trained on the central bank's interest rate decision at 0530 GMT.
At 10:28 a.m. (0458 GMT), the partially convertible rupee was at 49.70/71 per dollar, 0.3 percent stronger than Monday's close of 49.825/835.
"The macro report on Monday was less hawkish than expected by most people. There is, therefore, a view that the stance may be moving towards investment encouragement," said Ananth Narayan G., head of fixed income, currencies and commodities at Standard Chartered Bank.
MSCI Launches New Chinese Name MSCI 明晟 ("Ming Sheng")
Market leader demonstrates commitment to Greater China market
MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, including indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics and corporate governance services, announced today the launch of its new Chinese name for use across Greater China - "MSCI 明晟" ("Ming Sheng").
"As our business continues to grow in China, it has become increasingly important for us to have a local brand and identity that is easily recognized by the local market," said Henry Fernandez, Chairman and CEO of MSCI 明晟. "The launch of our new Chinese name - MSCI 明晟 - reflects the company’s commitment to both our clients and our business in China. By combining our global reach and expertise with our significant local resources and insight, MSCI 明晟 is perfectly placed to help our clients in China evolve and grow."
"China plays an important strategic role in the ongoing and future growth of our business – geographically it is one of the highest growth areas in terms of both clients and revenues and we believe that business generated from China will only become more substantial over time," added Mr Fernandez. "We are committed to continue building our local presence in China and have invested significantly in local talent over the last few years. Now that we have the right people in place we are focusing on building our local brand."
MSCI 明晟 opened its first mainland China office in Shanghai in 2005; today the company has over 180 employees located in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and more than 200 clients across Greater China.
BSE derivatives trading volume crosses Rs 500 crore
October 24, 2011--The country's premier stock exchange BSE Ltd's derivatives trading volume crossed the Rs 500-crore mark on Monday.
The volume of LEIPS-I touched Rs 546.29 crore with trading in 30 underlying shares on Monday, BSE said in a statement issued here.
The BSE launched market-making scheme, known as the Liquidity Enhancement Incentive Programmes or LEIPs last month with the expectation that it would improve liquidity and benefit to the retail stock market investors.
118 broker-members participated in derivatives trading on the 18th day of LEIPS-I.
FSA extends temporary measures regarding restrictions on short selling and purchase of own stocks by listed companies
October 24, 2011--1.The following regulatory measures on short selling are currently in place, with regard to all listed stocks in Japan:
1) An "uptick rule requirement" which prohibits, in principle, short selling at the same as or prices lower than the latest market price
2) Requirements for traders to verify and flag whether or not the transactions in question are short selling; and
3) Request the exchanges to make daily announcements on their aggregate price of short selling regarding all securities and aggregate price of short selling by sector (The announcements have been made sequentially since October 14, 2008). (See the FSA press release on October 14, 2008.)
In addition, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) has put in force the following measures, as temporary measures effective until October 31, 2011 (See the FSA press release on April 22, 2011.):
1) Naked short selling (short selling in which stocks are not borrowed at the time of selling) is prohibited (effective since October 30, 2008); and
2) Holders of a short position of a certain level or more (in principle, 0.25 percent or more of outstanding issued stocks) are required to report to exchanges through securities firms. Exchanges are required to publicly disclose such information (effective since November 7, 2008).
2. Regarding the purchase of own stocks by listed companies, taking into consideration the of situation Japan’s capital markets, the following restrictions have been temporarily relaxed over the period from October 14, 2008, to October 31, 2011. (See the FSA press release on April 22, 2011.)
1) Upper limit on the daily purchase volume
DB - Equity Research - Asia Pacific ETF Weekly Review: ETF AUM remains flat in spite of market downturn
October 24, 2011--Market Review
Asia-Pacific markets edged lower almost unanimously across the whole region. Japan (Nikkei 225) lost 0.79%, China (CSI 300) plunged by 5.50%, Hong Kong (HSI) declined by 2.57%, Singapore (FSSTI) fell by 1.16% and Australia (S&P/ASX 200) decreased by 1.51% over the previous week; while Korea (KOSPI2) gained 0.15% over the same period.
New Launch Review
Four new products were launched in the Asia-Pacific ETP market during last week. The Korean market saw three new ETFs listed in the Korea Exchange, Woori AM launched an ETF tracking Korean 10Y treasuries, KB AM launched an equity ETF tracking the KOSPI 200 index, and, new entrant, KDB AM listed an ETF with social responsibility focus.
The additional ETF was listed by Fortune SGAM FM in the Shanghai Stock Exchange and tracks the SSE 180 growth index (See Figure 4 for further details).
Turnover Review
Asia-Pacific ETP turnover totaled $6.3bn for last week, 19.5% down from the previous week’s total and 31% up from last year’s weekly average. South Korea continues to be on top of the turnover ranking with $3.2bn, followed by China ($1.2bn), Hong Kong ($0.9bn), Japan ($0.5bn), and Taiwan ($0.2bn). Among Equity ETFs, Emerging Country, Short Strategy, Leveraged, and Asia Pac Developed Country ETFs had total turnover of $2.3bn, $1.5bn, $1.2bn and $0.8bn respectively. Under the Commodity asset class, turnover in Gold ETPs totaled $157m, 42% up from last week.
Assets Under Management Review
As markets retreated last week, Asia-Pacific ETP AUM fell to $90.7bn recording a minor decrease of 0.8% over the previous week. On a year to date basis, Asia-Pacific ETP market is $6.5bn or 7.7% above last year’s closing.
