Markets show slight recovery after fears of political instability
January 26, 2010--Turkey’s markets recovered slightly yesterday, after a massive slide on Wednesday as confidence in the stock exchange slipped on domestic political tensions and news from the US that home sales had reached their lowest levels in January since 1963.
The market saw a slight recovery from the losses of Wednesday by the end of the first session of trading, starting the day off on a positive note. Trading at the close of the first session ended at 50,356.15, a 1.40 percent gain from 49,659.56, its standing at the end of the day on Wednesday.
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Source: Todays Zaman
Increase in products predicted to drive future cross-border market
February 8, 2010--Hewitt Associates has claimed a third of multi-national companies could have pan-European pension arrangements by 2015, as increased offerings from financial services providers could open the market to mid-sized companies.
Findings from a survey of 14 major financial services providers across Europe, including insurance organisations, suggest 75% of respondents have already implemented some form of cross-border pension product, and most have undertaken feasibility studies on behalf of multi-national companies.
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Source: IP&E
Profit-linked pensions creep in from US
February 26, 2010--Companies in the UK are starting to link pension payments to profits, with employees set to receive lower pay-outs in leaner years.
US companies with UK subsidiaries have been introducing the schemes over the past 18 months, but consultants say that UK-owned companies are now also considering the move.
Linking pensions to profits would allow companies to minimise contributions in difficult years, while avoiding the need to stop them entirely.
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Source: FT.com
Fund for Greek companies launched
February 26, 2010--A Greek advisory firm has launched the first fund that will specifically target the needs of financially troubled Greek companies
Lead Finance, which specialises in distressed financing and restructuring and is run run by an ex-Goldman Sachs banker, has raised $100m for the fund, called Lead Recovery Capital 1, from five US distress investors.
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Source: FT.com
DB Index Research -- Weekly ETF Reports - Europe
February 25, 2010--Highlights
ETF Volume
Exchange based Equity ETF turnover declined by 2.9% on the previous week. Daily turnover for the previous week was E1.6bn. European fixed income ETF turnover declined by 6.4% to E252.3m.
In exchange based bond ETFs, db x-trackers US Dollar Money Market ETF has the highest daily turnover of E26.66m. Among the Equity ETFs, iShares DAX (DE) has the highest daily turnover of E86.23m.
There was one new listing last week. Source issued one new ETF on Deutsche Borse. The ETF listed was primary listing.
Style ETFs remained at the top position as leading product area with total turnover of E486m with 29.91% of total ETF turnover followed by European Regional ETFs with total turnover of E473m accounting for 29.12% of total ETF turnover. The DAX ETFs remain the dominant country products with total average daily volume of E183m across the fourteen listed products and accounting for 11.3% of all equity ETF volume.
DJ Euro STOXX 50 ETFs accounted for 15.6% of turnover trading E254m per day with liquidity split across 17 ETFs and 44 different listings on 9 exchanges.
Market Share
The Deutsche Borse XTF platform has the largest market share with 36.5% of total turnover. The Euronext NextTrack platform has 23.5% market share. The LSE’s combined Italian Exchange and London market share is now 25.3%.
Assets under Management (AUM)
Total European Equity related AUM rose by 3.3% to E114.4bn during last week. AUM for DJ Euro STOXX 50 ETFs was E21.5bn accounting for 18.8% of total European AUM. Fixed Income ETF AUM remained at about the same level at E36.7bn.
Overall, the largest ETF by AUM was Lyxor ETF DJ Euro STOXX 50, an Equity based ETF, with AUM of E5.2bn. The largest Fixed Income ETF by AUM was the iShares € Corporate Bond with AUM of E3.2bn.
To request a copy of the report
Source: Aram Flores and Shan Lan -DB Index Research
Investors say transparency is key in product choice: study
February 25, 2010--German institutional investors see transparency, and not performance, as crucial when they choose a product. This is one of the more surprising findings of portfolio Verlag’s asset allocation study, which was published in English last week
In the study, 67 percent of the investors cited transparency as the most important factor, followed by counterparty risk (54 percent) and performance (40 percent). Other factors mentioned included liquidity (36.5 percent), cost (35 percent) and volatility (19 percent). A total of 337 German investors with €570 billion in assets were queried for the study.
Another surprise was the investors’ choice of a vehicle. Around 35 percent said they preferred exchange traded funds (ETFs), only ten percentage points below those who said they liked German institutional funds (Spezialfonds) or actively-managed Ucits funds.
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Source: portfolio weekly
Nine Barclays Bank ETCs Launched on Xetra
February 25, 2010--Nine exchange traded commodities (ETCs) issued by Barclays Bank have been tradable on Xetra® since Thursday, under the product name iPath.
Seven of the nine ETCs track the performance of sub-indices of the S&P GSCI Total Return Index. These indices track the performance of agricultural products and commodities, grains, livestock, industrial metals, precious metals and the energy sector. Investors can also track the performance of the commodities index S&P GSCI Total Return with the iPath S&P GSCI Total Return ETN. The index comprises agricultural products, energy, livestock, and industrial and precious metals.
Another of the ETCs tracks the performance of the Dow Jones–UBS Commodity Index, which contains energy, liquid fuels, precious and industrial metals, grains, livestock, and agricultural commodities and products.
iPath Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Total Return ETN
DE000BC1C7J1
iPath S&P GSCI Agriculture Index Total Return ETN
DE000BC1DBJ5
iPath S&P GSCI Energy Index Total Return ETN
DE000BC1DBH9
iPath S&P GSCI Grains Index Total Return ETN
DE000BC1DBK3
iPath S&P GSCI Total Return ETN
DE000BC1DBG1
iPath S&P GSCI Industrial Metals Index Total Return ETN
DE000BC1C7K9
iPath S&P GSCI Livestock Index Total Return ETN
DE000BC1DBM9
iPath S&P GSCI Precious Metals Index Total Return ETN
DE000BC1C7L7
iPath S&P GSCI Softs Index Total Return ETN
DE000BC1DBL1
Source: Deutsche Börse
Investment Funds: Finesti and Clearstream Optimize Allocation of ISIN Codes
February 25, 2010-- Finesti S.A. and Clearstream Banking Luxembourg have concluded a technology partnership agreement to simplify and optimize the allocation of ISIN (International Securities Identification Number) codes for all investment funds under Luxembourg law.
Under the terms of the agreement, Finesti’s e-file.lu application will become one of the channels for the electronic submission of requests for the allocation of ISIN codes within Clearstream, in its capacity as a national numbering agency. This entirely electronic solution offers promoters of investment funds several advantages, including traceability and security for allocation requests as well as real-time tracking.
In order to be officially processed, all issued securities, equities, bonds and investment funds must feature an ISIN code allocated by a national agency. Clearstream undertakes this task in Luxembourg. Each year, Clearstream allocates around 15,000 new ISIN codes to Luxembourg funds.
Philippe Seyll, Head of Investment Fund Services at Clearstream, is delighted about “this initial cooperation between Finesti and Clearstream which is a new step towards further improving efficiency and the infrastructure for handling Luxembourg investment funds”.
For his part, Dominique Valschaerts, Finesti’s CEO, stated that “this new procedure, which is based on Finesti’s e-file tool, complements the already extensive range of its functions, thereby contributing to optimizing the registration procedure of Luxembourg funds”.
Source: Clearstream
International regulators publish systemic risk data requirements for hedge funds
Febraury 25, 2010--The International Organization of Securities Commissions' (IOSCO) Technical Committee has published details of an agreed template for the global collection of hedge fund information which it believes will assist in assessing possible systemic risks arising from the sector. The template was developed by the Task Force on Unregulated Entities (Task Force) following requests from the Financial Stability Board (FSB) as well as from IOSCO members.
The purpose of the template is to enable the collection and exchange of consistent and comparable data amongst regulators and other competent authorities for the purpose of facilitating international supervisory cooperation in identifying possible systemic risks in this sector. IOSCO believes that participants are best monitored through their trading activities, the markets they operate in, funding and counterparty information, amongst others.
view the Hedge Funds Oversight report
Source: IOSCO
Eurozone lending drop reveals recovery risk: analysts
Febraury 25, 2010-- A steep fall in eurozone lending even though the amount of money available rose slightly in January highlights a serious risk to Europe's fragile finances and recovery, analysts say.
Loans to the private sector shrank by 0.6 percent in January, the European Central Bank reported Thursday, while money supply as measured by the bank's M3 indicator increased by 0.1 percent.
The rate of contraction in loans was much sharper than December's drop of 0.1 percent, and came as a survey of eurozone business and consumer sentiment showed the bloc shifting into reverse after a 10-month rebound in confidence.
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Source: EU Business
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