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NZX consults on new infrastructure index
February 9, 2011-- NZX has released today a short consultation paper on a new index of the top 10 NZX listed infrastructure stocks. The Investable Infrastructure Index will be the first in a series of Investable Indices, with a Construction and Property index next in line.
Comprising high-liquidity, widely held stocks, the Investable Indices will be an attractive base for index funds, index futures and Exchange Traded Funds, and will enable targeted and sector-specific investment in the New Zealand market.
NZX plans to name the indices after individuals who have made outstanding efforts to develop and advance the related sector. The Investable Infrastructure Index will be named after Lloyd Morrison CNZM, in recognition of his instrumental contribution to the New Zealand infrastructure sector at many levels, including an enormous impact on quality and efficiency, and in taking New Zealand infrastructure exports globally to Australia, the US and the UK.
OTC derivatives clearing on rise at SGX
February 8, 2011--Singapore Exchange (SGX) today said volumes achieved by its derivatives market and OTC clearing business increased in January from a year earlier.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Securities Market
Securities turnover totaled $37.2 billion with an SDAV of $1.8 billion.
ETF trading more than doubled to $789 million year on year.
Derivatives and Commodities Markets
Derivatives volume was 5.1 million contracts, up 2% from the previous
year. The average daily volume was 260,233.
Nifty futures (SGX S&P CNX Nifty Index futures) achieved volume of 1.19 million contracts, up 42% from a year earlier, while FTSE China A50 Index futures volume was 62% higher at 214,648 contracts from December.
Total options volume was 115,486, more than six times that of a year earlier.
AsiaClear volume in January rose 42% year on year to 16,765 contracts, with OTC iron ore swaps volume up 57% at 4,441 contracts.
Indonesian growth hits six-year high
February 7, 2011-Indonesia’s economy grew at its fastest pace in six years in the fourth quarter of 2010, beating economists’ forecasts and heightening concerns about overheating.
The economy expanded 6.9 per cent in the three months ending in December compared to a year earlier, mirroring a spurt across much of Asia in the last quarter of 2010, with many countries defying expectations of a slowdown caused by stuttering western demand and tighter monetary policy.
Hang Seng drops as energy stocks fade
February 7, 2011--Asia stocks slipped for the first time in five sessions as Hong Kong had its worst start to the Chinese new year since 2008 but Tokyo hit a nine-month high on strong earnings.
The FTSE Asia-Pacific index edged 0.1 per cent lower to 267.86 but remains within touching distance of 30-month highs scaled in mid-January.
Indian economy to grow 8.6% in 2011
February 7, 2011-- India's economy is expected to grow 8.6% in the current fiscal year, a government statement said - its highest rate for three years despite a series of interest rate hikes.
The estimate for the year to March 31 was based on growth rates of more than 8% in key sectors such as manufacturing, construction, finance, real estate and business services, the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) said.
Barclays To Debut Exchange-Traded Notes On TSE -Nikkei
February 7, 2011--U.K. financial services giant Barclays PLC (BCS) will list a dozen or so exchange-traded notes on the Tokyo Stock Exchange around this spring, The Nikkei reported early Tuesday.
ETNs track particular indexes without actually investing in their underlying assets. These unsecured notes also pave the way for trading in emerging-market stocks, rare metals, and other vehicles normally closed to foreign investors. The TSE recently authorized trading in ETNs, with the first likely to debut in April.
Barclays anticipates demand from a wide spectrum of investors in Japan, including pension funds and individuals, says Philippe El-Asmar, head of Asian sales. The firm seeks to increase its ETN assets to around Y100 billion ($1.21 billion) in several years.
Trading in ETNs kicked off in the U.S. back in 2006, with their assets reaching roughly $14 billion this January--nearly doubling on the year.
DB Index & ETF Research -- Asia Pacific ETF Weekly Review : 2011 Welcomes new ETPs
February 2, 2011--This is the first issue of our new and improved Asia-Pacific report. In revamping this publication, we aimed to both maintain the relevant content from the former report and add insightful new features to better cover the ETP industry as it grows in product quantity, asset classes, strategies, trading activity, and size. Our weekly reports will now review new Product activity, ETP Turnover and AUM across all asset classes and will be supplemented, once a month, with analyses of Cash Flows trends. Furthermore, we will continue updating our ETP directory to include all relevant product metrics, though we will do so on a monthly, instead of weekly, basis.
Market Review
Nine new product launches in the first four weeks kicked 2011 off to a strong start vs. five products in January 2010. Products related to China dominated the new offerings: with 3 ETPs listed in mainland China and 3 in Hong Kong SAR, while the remaining three were listed on the Korean Stock Exchange. The new products offer access to different return streams, including: agricultural futures, Chinese dividend income, “green returns”, and broad local markets. See Figure 4 for more details. These new products increased the region's ETP count to a total of 293, with 446 listings across 12 countries.
Turnover Review: New Measure for 2011
Beginning with this issue of the new report, all of our turnover figures will now make reference to the total dollar (US$) value traded over a 1 week span. To elaborate, in this report the “Current Week” figure references the dollar value traded from Monday, Jan 24th to Friday, Jan 28th, while the “Previous Week” figure references the dollar value traded from Monday, Jan 17th to Friday, Jan 21th. Also, the "Year 2010" figure references the weekly average turnover across the entirety of 2010. We believe that this new measure will help us better compare the week over week turnover trends at the aggregate level. In the previous version of report, we had used a "22-Day Average Turnover" figure, which proved more useful at the product level instead.
Since the start of the year turnover has been bound within a 10% around last year’s weekly average value. Last week’s total ETP turnover was $4.3 bn vs. $4.8 bn in the previous week, representing a decrease of about 9% over the weekly turnover average in 2010. Among markets, Hong Kong made the top of the list with $1.4 bn traded throughout last week, accounting for 31.8% of the on-exchange Asian turnover.
Asset Under Management Review
Assets rose 1.2% to $84 bn vs. $83 bn in the previous week. Year to date, assets have slightly shrunk by $0.16 bn, remaining at about the same level than 2010's closing figure.
To request a copy of the report
First currency-based Exchange Traded Fund launched in Australia
February 1, 2011--The ASX Group (ASX) announces the launch today of the first exchange traded fund (ETF) over currency to be traded
on the Australian Securities Exchange.
The currency ETF will track the US dollar against the Australian dollar, enabling Australian institutional, intermediary and individual investors to simply and cost-effectively obtain immediate exposure to the US dollar.
Richard Murphy, ASX General Manager Equity Markets, said the launch of the currency ETF continues the rapid
growth of ETFs and Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs) in the Australian market.
“The quoting of the currency ETF, issued by BetaShares, expands the suite of ETFs and ETCs available on ASX to 46.
Australian ETFs cover domestic and international equities, property, commodities - and now currency - and provide Australian investors with greater opportunity to internationalise their portfolios,” he said.
“Exchange traded funds have been one of the most successful growth products for both retail and institutional investors around the world over the previous decade. In Australia, ASX is committed to developing the ETF sector to provide investors with access to a broad range of investable asset classes. Last calendar year the market capitalisation of the ETF sector quoted on ASX grew by 45% to $5.1 billion.”
The providers of the 46 ETFs and ETCs quoted on ASX are: Australian Index Investments (Aii), BetaShares, BlackRock (iShares), ETF Securities, Perth Mint, Russell Investments, State Street (SPDRs) and Vanguard Investments.
Further information on ASX ETFs, ETCs and issuers can be found here www.asx.com.au/etf
UBS To Clear OTC Traded Financials On Singapore Exchange
February 1, 2011--Singapore Exchange (SGX) welcomes UBS AG to AsiaClear as a new SGX Bank Clearing Member for the clearing of over-the-counter (OTC) traded financial derivatives.
Mr Muthukrishnan Ramaswami, President of Singapore Exchange, said, “We look forward to UBS’ participation in our clearing service for OTC traded financial derivatives in addition to their presence in our securities and derivatives markets. We are encouraged by the extensive interest shown by the OTC market participants and thank our members for their strong support since the launch two months ago.
We expect to broaden our clearing offering with foreign exchange forwards in the second quarter of 2011.”
Mr Gerald Chan, CEO & Country Head, UBS Singapore: ““As part of our ongoing commitment to our clients to be a top 3 clearing provider, UBS is pleased to partner SGX for the AsiaClear service. It is yet another testimony to the innovation and efficiency of SGX and its members. UBS Prime Services is an established and highly regarded global Prime Brokerage and Clearing business covering over 70 exchanges globally. Offering the AsiaClear service complements our current capabilities.”
UBS AG brings the total number of Bank Clearing Members for the clearing of OTC traded financial derivatives on SGX AsiaClear to 11.
India to issue Swiss franc-denominated bonds
January 31, 2011--Indian state-run banks are issuing Swiss franc-denominated bonds for the first time since 1987 to meet the nation’s fast growing credit demand at more attractive rates as the costs of raising the more common dollar bonds has spiked in recent months
State Bank of India, the country’s biggest lender, has hired three foreign advisers to raise about SFr250m ($265m), Naresh Malhotra, the bank’s deputy general manager for overseas expansion, told the Financial Times.
