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Intervention pulls yen back from record high
March 18, 2011--The yen fell sharply from a record high against the dollar this week after the Group of Seven richest nations committed to intervene together to sell the currency.
This represented the first such co-ordinated intervention since major central banks joined forces to support the euro in 2000.
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Source: FT.com
Junk-rated loans and bond deals pulled amid Tokyo jitters
March 17, 2011--Around $11bn of junk-rated corporate loans and bond deals have been cancelled amid heightened market volatility and rising borrowing costs after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last week.
Spreads on the Bank of America Merrill Lynch index of high-yield bonds – a benchmark for junk bond prices – have widened around 30 basis points since last Friday to 516bp over US Treasuries, back to levels from mid-January
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Source: FT.com
Goldman Sachs Just Bought An Indian Fund Manager That Specializes In ETFs
March 16, 2011--Goldman Sachs Asset Management has purchased an India-based money manager, Benchmark Asset Management.
Benchmark is a "big provider of exchange-traded funds," according to the WSJ, and has about $700 million AUM.
BAM's main portfolio is gold exchange-traded funds.
No concrete details are known about the terms of the acquisition, including the big question -- how much are they paying -- but it's supposed to close this year.
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Source: Business Insider
Eleven KRX Listed Companies Included To FTSE4Good Global Universe
March 16, 2011--According to FTSE, eleven KRX listed companies will be newly included to the FTSE4Good Global Universe after the index company performed annual review of its indices: Amorepacific Corp., Samsung Electro-Mechanics, KB Financial Group, Busan Bank, Dongbu Insurance, Daegu Bank, Halla Climate Control, Hyundai Hysco, Woongjin Coway, Daum Communications, and NHN.
Those South Korean companies that are listed on KOSPI Market, the main board of the KRX, met the constituent criteria of the index, which is designed to measure the performance of companies that meet globally recognized corporate responsibility standards and to facilitate investment in those companies. The changes will be effective from close of business on March 18, 2011.
Source: KRX
Indonesia Economy: Good first quarter in 2011 but risks lie ahead
March 16, 2011 - Indonesia’s economic development during the first quarter of 2011 seems to be a déjà vu of 2008. Strong economic momentum coupled with a rise in commodity prices resembling conditions three years ago is why the World Bank’s first Indonesia Economic Quarterly for 2011 is titled “2008 Again?”.
The report launched at the Paramadina Graduate School on March 16 has two main messages. First, Indonesia’s economy is growing strong, exceeding expectations made in the fourth quarter of 2010 and well above the average for the last ten years. World Bank growth forecast for 2011 has been upgraded to 6.4 percent, with a possibility of further increase to 6.7 percent in 2012. Balance of payments inflows are strong, foreign direct investment has increased, reaching record levels.
The second main message from the report, despite this bright outlook, Indonesia should take note of risks that lie ahead. Many global commodity prices are back at or above their 2008 peaks. Shubam Chauduri, Lead Economist of World Bank Indonesia, explained that a rise in commodity price may bring a positive impact to the country’s GDP as a whole because Indonesia is a commodity economy. “However, risks lie for poor households who may be greatly affected by the sharp increase of living costs,” he warned. Rising food price inflation also pose a risk to progress on poverty reduction. Shubham added, at the global level the World Bank estimates that recent rises in food prices will lead to 44 million more people entering poverty.
read moreview the IMF Working paper-Indonesia economic quarterly : 2008 again?
Source: World Bank
Asian Hedge Fund Assets Rise 15% To US$152.3 Bln In 2010
March 15, 2011--Asian hedge funds' assets grew 15% in 2010 to US$152.3 billion, as liquidity flowed into the region, according to a survey conducted by trade publication AsiaHedge. Last year, hedge fund asset growth in Asia in the second half was double growth in the first half, AsiaHedge said in a statement Tuesday.
The allocations have gone not just to large international hedge fund brand names with Asia investments, but also to a much wider base of home-grown Asian managers. "Several of the post-crisis start-ups had built up decent track records by mid-2010, and were well poised for gaining these allocations as the capital moved back into Asia," says Aradhna Dayal, editor of AsiaHedge in Hong Kong. "The result has been nothing short of a cascading effect and many of the mid-size funds have seen very quick scale-ups in the second half of 2010. Hong Kong emerged as the top location choice for Asian hedge funds last year, according to the statement.
Source: Wall Street Journal Interactive
SSE Urges Members to Better Investor Protection
March 15, 2011--The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has recently announced the result of self-examination and visiting research on its members' investor education efforts, which aims to urge its member units to earnestly implement relevant business requirements and share the experience and practical measures of investor education.
Respect for and realization of investors' legitimate rights and interests, including the right to know and the right to choose, are directly related to the implementation of relevant requirements of regulators as well as the efforts in investor suitability management, investor education and customer service by the securities companies and their business departments, which are the backbone of the front-line investor education efforts. The self-examination and visiting research on investor education initiated by the SSE is designed to strengthen the management over and standardize the operation of its members for better investor protection. On the one hand, members of the SSE were urged to well perform their duties to improve investor education and service quality. On the other hand, qualified investors cultivation was speeded up by exploring effective investor education modes and measures, enhancing working experience summarization and communication, and pooling industry-wide efforts.
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Source: Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE)
Message From Atsushi Saito, President & CEO, Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, To All Investors and Trading Participants On Sharp Declines In Tokyo Stock Market
March 15, 2011--The Tokyo stock market has been experiencing sharp drops over the last couple of days. I suspect that this has mainly been caused by increasing concerns about the degradation of social infrastructure following the recent “2011 off the Pacific coast Tohoku Earthquake” and subsequent nuclear power plant accident. Market participants’ concerns have also been further accelerated by the conflicting information on these happenings.
However, the overseas media still appreciate the potential power of the Japanese economy, even after the recent earthquake. In fact, the trend in the stock market today and yesterday showed that foreign investors were the net buyers.
I also believe that Japan’s experience, knowledge and technologies in the area of recovering from earthquakes should not be underestimated and that the stock market will calm down soon.
Under these circumstances, I believe that the Tokyo Stock Exchange in its role as an important social infrastructure should continue to provide opportunities for stock trading. I would appreciate it if all investors and trading participants would respond in a calm and orderly manner.
Atsushi Saito
President & CEO
Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, Inc.
Source: TSE
FTSE Wins USD 3.3 billion in Mandates from Two of Taiwan's Largest Pension Funds
March 14, 2011--FTSE Group (“FTSE”), the award winning global index provider, expands its footprint with asset owners in Asia following the announcement of three new mandates issued totalling USD 3.3 billion by two of Taiwan’s largest pension funds, the Public Services Pension Fund (“PSPF”) and the Labour Pension Fund (“LPF”).
FTSE’s core global equities offering, the FTSE All-World Index, has been chosen for the first time by PSPF as the benchmark for a USD 600 million global developed equities mandate. The PSPF is a mandatory defined-benefit scheme for civil servants, teachers and military personnel in Taiwan with assets totalling over USD 16 billion.
LPF, Taiwan’s government pension fund for the labour force with assets totalling over USD 39 billion, has benchmarked their equity investments against the FTSE All-World Index for several years and FTSE now extends this relationship to alternative benchmark solutions. For the first time, LPF has allocated USD 1.8 billion to passively track the fundamentally weighted FTSE RAFI All-World 3000 Index. In Asia FTSE has previously licensed non-market cap weighted indices such as the FTSE RAFI indices in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan as asset owners seek new approaches to diversify portfolios and enhance returns. LPF has also allocated USD 0.9 billion to the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Real Estate Index which has become the benchmark of choice among asset owners globally for real estate investment.
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Source: FTSE
Aussie ETFs Prove Popular with Locals
March 14, 2011--The Australian summer is a notoriously quiet time for financial markets as the nation heads for the beach.
But the season did not stop local investors from piling A$140m ($140m) into four new exchange traded fund products launched on the Australian Securities Exchange by BlackRock iShares in mid-December.
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Source: FT.com
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