China's annual coal consumption rises for first time in 3 years
February 28, 2018--China's appetite for coal increased last year due to a stimulus-driven economic uptick before its party congress, new numbers show, demonstrating how the country's ambitious war on pollution is still second to political necessities.
China's coal consumption rose 0.4 per cent in 2017, according to statistics..
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Source: FT.com
Rush for China shares and bonds bodes well for renminbi
February 28, 2018--This year is shaping up to be an upbeat one for renminbi investing.
Not only are domestic Chinese A-shares set to be incorporated for the first time into the world's leading emerging markets equity index, there are also hopes of similar moves ahead for renminbi-denominated bonds
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Source: FT.com
Supplying world energy-FUEL for thought?
February 28, 2018--From the looks of it, it seems as though 2018 will be a year of synchronised economic growth and gradually rising inflation.
These circumstances generally create an enviable environment for certain investment sectors, with a fair bit written recently about the potential upside for industries such as banking & consumer and technology stocks.
Amongst the hype of these more "glamorous" sectors, and without helpful tailwind factors the global energy sector produced a rather unspectacular 3.58% return for 2017.
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Source: betashares.com.au
Bonds are (still) behaving badly
February 27, 2018--Recent market concerns with regard to rising bond yields has once again drawn attention to the value of floating versus fixed rate bonds in such an environment. This note provides an update on the recent performance of these two types of bond exposure.
Risk and Return in Fixed vs Floating Bond Exposures
As I've previously explained, the headline bond index in Australia-against which many active and passive bond funds benchmark themselves-is the Bloomberg AusBond Composite Index (BACI). One challenge with this Index is that it is dominated by fixed-rate government and corporate bonds, which means its capital return is highly sensitive to the changes in the general level of bond yields.
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Source: betashares.com.au
China announces new rules for banks issuing bonds to replenish capital
February 27, 2018--China's central bank on Tuesday announced new rules for banks' issuance of bonds to replenish capital, aiming to help banks better absorb capital losses and better protect investors' rights.
The rules would allow the bond issuer to write-off the bonds or convert them into equity under certain conditions, the People's Bank of China said in a notice published on its website.
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Source: Reuters
BetaShares opens Queensland office
February 27, 2018--BetaShares has continued its expansion with an opening of a new Queensland office, followed by a number of key appointments, which included Tamas Calderwood joining the firm as new national manager, adviser services.
Calderwood, who joined from MSCI where he was vice president, client coverage, has 20 years' experience in financial services and would be based in Sydney.
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Source: moneymanagement.com.au
ETFGI reports assets invested in ETFs and ETPs listed in Japan reach record high of US$295 billion at the end of January 2018
February 23, 2018--According to ETFGI's January 2018 Japan ETF and ETP industry insights report, a monthly report included in an annual paid-for research subscription service, assets invested in ETFs and ETPs listed in Japan reached a record high of US$295 billion at the end of January 2018, shattering the previous record of US$276 billion set at the end of 2017. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
Highlights
Assets invested in ETFs/ETPs listed in Japan increased by $18.8 Bn during January to reach a new record high of $295 Bn
In January 2018, ETFs and ETPs listed in Japan saw net inflows of $6.80 billion
Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered the largest net inflows with US$6.55 Bn, followed by leveraged ETFs/ETPs with US$144 Mn
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Source: ETFGI
IMF-A Digital-Savvy Indonesia
February 22, 2018--With the third largest youth population in the world and 130 million active social media users, Indonesia is poised to become the biggest digital economy country in Southeast Asia. To fully embrace the digital opportunity, Indonesia must enhance its infrastructure and increase internet penetration to lift economic growth and productivity.
According to a McKinsey report, digitization could expand Indonesia's economy by 10 percent of GDP and add 3.7 million jobs by 2025.
As the figure shows, Indonesia's digital landscape has expanded in recent years—ranging from increased use of big data and mobile internet, to the rise of digital financial services and e-commerce. The use of big data and advanced analytics increased by 60 percent between 2014 and 2015, while the number of mobile internet users grew by 13 million (more than 20 percent) between 2015 and 2017.
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Source: IMF
About 70 HFT traders to be registered in Japan-JPX
February 22, 2018--About 70 firms are expected to be registered as high frequency traders (HFTs) in Japan, the Japan Exchange Group (JPX) said on Wednesday, ahead of the start of new regulations in April that require HFTs to register with the government.
Japan has introduced the requirement as trading by HFTs comes under scrutiny globally as a potential source of flash crashes and other sharp, volatile moves in financial markets.
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Source: Reuters
ETFGI reports assets invested in ETFs and ETPs listed in Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) reach record high of US$184 billion at the end of January 2018
February 22, 2018--According to ETFGI's January 2018 Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) ETF and ETP industry insights report, a monthly report included in an annual paid-for research subscription service, assets invested in ETFs and ETPs listed in Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) reached a record high of US$184 billion at the end of January 2018, shattering the previous record of US$170 billion set at the end of 2017. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
Highlights
Assets invested in ETFs/ETPs listed in Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) increased by a record $14.0 Bn during January to reach a new high of $184 Bn
In January 2018, ETFs and ETPs listed in Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) saw net inflows of $2.72 Bn
Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered the largest net inflows with US$1.6 Bn, followed by mixed asset class ETFs/ETPs with US$922 Mn.
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Source: ETFGI