London Stock Exchange Takes New Retail Bond Market Across UK
March 4, 2010--The London Stock Exchange will host five free seminars in cities across the UK next week to promote the benefits of its new Order book for Retail Bonds.
Launched on 1 February 2010 in response to strong private investor demand for greater access to fixed income, the new order book offers simple, transparent access to 60 UK gilts and corporate bonds all tradable in easily manageable sizes.
Bonds currently available for trading include securities issued by Tesco, BT, National Grid, GlaxoSmithKline, Morgan Stanley, GE Capital, Enterprise Inns, Royal Bank of Scotland and Wal-Mart as well as 49 gilts.
Aimed at local brokers and advisers of potential issuers, the events will be held in partnership with accounting and law firms in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London. Exchange representatives will begin by discussing London's markets. They will then give details on the different types of bonds and issuers involved with the new retail platform; explain how the market works and the process for listing and admitting retail bonds, as well as how to access the new order book and take questions from attendees.
Pietro Poletto, Head of Fixed Income for London Stock Exchange Group, said:
"We are looking forward to meeting with local brokers and advisers and introducing them to the benefits of our new Order book for Retail Bonds. This is a brand new market for the UK and we are keen to raise awareness of its advantages across the country. In particular we want to highlight the benefits of retail bond issuance as an effective additional source of funding for companies as well as raising awareness of the market as a liquid, transparent secondary market for bonds tradable in smaller sizes more suitable for the retail investor."
Barclays Capital Goes Live With Sponsored Access on NASDAQ OMX Europe
March 4, 2010--ASDAQ OMX Europe ("NEURO")
today announced that Barclays Capital has been approved as a Sponsoring
Participant. Barclays Capital will be the first broker to offer
Sponsored Access using NEURO's advanced Pre-Trade Risk Management
system.
Sponsored Access enables participants to provide their clients' direct
connectivity to NEURO's advanced matching and routing services. NEURO
provides a Pre-Trade Risk Management system which mitigates market risk
by monitoring all orders submitted to the NEURO book. Any orders that
breach pre-determined trading limits will be rejected.
Clients are able to connect either via proximity hosting or through
remote access.
"We are delighted to be working with Barclays Capital in providing
their clients with access to NEURO," said Charlotte Crosswell,
President of NEURO. "Sponsored Access provides new opportunities for a
wide range of market participants to trade directly on our platform."
"We are pleased to be the first broker to offer our clients
full-service sponsored access on NASDAQ OMX Europe" said Robert Orgel,
Head of Barclays Capital's Quantitative Prime Services product in
Europe. "As the European trading landscape evolves, we continue to work
closely with trading venues in order to offer new and innovative
solutions to our clients. Sponsored access complements our market
leading DMA platform, SubM(SM), providing ultra low latency access to
equities, futures and options markets globally."
EU expects free trade deal with India by October
March 4, 2010--The European Union expects to clinch a free trade pact with India by October, the EU's trade chief said Thursday, as the 27-member trading bloc pushes to secure new markets across Asia.
"The deal should be done by the next summit between the EU and India in October," EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht said in New Delhi following a day of talks with Indian trade minister Anand Sharma.
De Gucht and Sharma "shared the view" that a deal could be done and "we will speed up negotiations," the EU trade official told reporters.
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wiiw Forecast for Central, East and Southeast Europe, 2010-2012
March 4, 2010--Most countries in Central, East and Southeast Europe have emerged from the trough of the
crisis already at the end of 2009. Several leading indicators point to a modest upswing. All
countries in the region will grow again only by 2011. Growth may accelerate slightly in 2012,
but will in general be slower than in the pre-crisis period.
Given the weak rebound of
economic activities, unemployment will continue to rise. The most vulnerable group of
workers affected by the crisis are those with low skills. Economic policies should focus on
countercyclical measures, correcting real exchange rate misalignments, as well as changing
the regulatory framework and a range of supply-side policies. These are the main results of the new medium-term forecast and policy assessment for the region published by the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw).
Recession deeper than expected
After a long period of convergence, Central, East and Southeast Europe experienced a deep recession in 2009. The relatively moderate GDP decline (-3.6%) on average for the new EU member
states (NMS) reflects Poland’s weight in the group, the only EU country to have recorded positive GDP growth last year (Albania, Kazakhstan and China registered positive growth rates as well). In most other countries the catching-up process was interrupted, in particular the Baltic States were thrown several years back – more than Russia and Ukraine. The most conspicuous
response to the crisis was a radical depletion of inventories and, closely related to this, a dramatic
improvement in net exports since the contraction of imports was much larger than that of exports.
This, together with less profit realized by foreign companies operating in the region, resulted in a
sizeable reduction of current account deficits.
Modest upswing in the making
Most countries in the region have emerged from the trough of the crisis already at the end of 2009.
Several leading indicators point to a modest upswing. Poland’s growth will once again boost the
NMS average in 2010, while the rate of expansion in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia will
be meagre. Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria are still expected to stagnate in 2010, the Baltic States
will record further negative growth rates – just as Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan will rebound more strongly. We expect all countries in the region to
be growing again only by 2011. That growth may accelerate slightly in 2012, but will in general be
slower than in the pre-crisis period. The main prerequisite of an upturn is a marked recovery in
global trade, including a rise in demand for imports from the region. Increases in private
consumption are not likely to be very pronounced as long as employment fails to grow. Investment
will not act as a strong engine of growth either. Given the generally weak rebound of economic activities, unemployment will continue to rise, probably peaking in 2010, before falling slowly to
pre-crisis levels. The most vulnerable group of workers affected by the crisis are again those with
low skills.
China’s economy expanded at a rate of 8.7% in 2009, more than expected earlier. This fast
growth despite a slump in exports was due to massive government stimulus measures driving
investment and supporting private consumption. With the expansionary fiscal policy still in place
and foreign demand picking up, the Chinese economy may grow even faster in the coming years.
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S&P GSCI recovers 5.56 per cent in February
March 4, 2010--The S&P GSCI, a commodities index, increased 5.56 per cent in February after falling 7.89 per cent in January.
The index was led higher during the month by energy: the S&P GSCI Energy Index gained 6.92 per cent in February.
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