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BBVA and Newedge new joint venture, Altura, creates Spain's largest brokerage and clearing firm
October 1, 2009--BBVA and Newedge have formed a joint venture to combine their positions in the Spanish markets while retaining the brand name Altura.
Under the joint venture agreement between the parent banks, which merges the Altura and Newedge Madrid offices, Newedge Group and BBVA will each have a 50% ownership interest in the new company.
This partnership substitutes the partnership BBVA had with Calyon Financial, with which it created the broker house Altura in 2000.
Since its creation, Altura has been a leading futures and options brokerage company in Spain, providing institutional clients with competitive and extensive execution and clearing services on major listed derivatives exchanges. The combined Spanish entity now has EUR 1,200m in client assets on deposit, and clears approximately 80 million contracts in the listed markets per year.
Altura provides all institutional clients with competitive and extensive execution and clearing services on all the world's listed derivatives exchanges. Newedge, a world leader in global brokerage, offers a full range of clearing and execution services on multi-asset products to a diverse client base, including institutional, corporate and hedge fund clients. Sverre Hasvold, CEO of the new Altura joint venture, commented: "The combination of the two companies reinforces our competitive positioning in a consolidating industry so that we can continue delivering value to our clients. Through the new joint venture, our customers in Spain and Portugal will have access to more than 85 exchanges worldwide, so wherever they need to conduct business they can be confident of local expertise".
Ricardo Laiseca, Head of BBVA Global Markets division, commented: "We are delighted to join forces with Newedge, together BBVA and Newedge will make very strong partners to ensure that we maintain our status as the No. 1 player in Spain."
Patrice Blanc, CEO of Newedge, commented: "Newedge's presence in Spain marks a big step forward thanks to the well established Altura brand. This creates an excellent opportunity for us to deliver our global offer to a large number of institutional clients in Spain and Portugal while further increasing our global coverage."
FSA sets out policy on short selling
October 1, 2009--The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today issued a Feedback Statement that confirms that it intends to pursue enhanced transparency of short selling through disclosure of significant short positions in all equities. However, it will work towards agreement on future requirements at an international level rather than introducing a separate domestic regime. In the meantime it has no plans for immediate changes to its current short selling requirements.
Currently, the FSA requires disclosure to the market of net short positions of 0.25% or more of the issued share capital of UK financial sector companies or companies carrying out a rights issue.
Alexander Justham, FSA director of markets, said:
"The consultation exercise has confirmed our support for enhanced disclosure requirements for significant short positions rather than any direct restrictions on short selling, other than on a temporary basis in exceptional market conditions. But we remain committed to securing agreement on as wide an international basis as possible and, in particular, to achieving a harmonised regime within Europe."
The Feedback Statement details the responses that the FSA received to its proposals in the February 2009 Discussion Paper (DP) on short selling. The DP examined the arguments for and against restrictions on short selling. It proposed a disclosure requirement for the short selling of all stocks, not just those of financial services companies, using an initial disclosure threshold of 0.5% of issued share capital. It also stated that the FSA’s preferred route was to achieve international agreement on policy.
Since the DP was published the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has issued proposals for a short selling disclosure regime. CESR’s proposals for public disclosures of significant short positions are very similar to the FSA’s but also include the idea for private disclosures to regulators at 0.1%. In today’s Feedback Statement, the FSA states that it is open to the possibility of requiring private disclosures at the lower threshold. The FSA will continue to work with CESR to develop an agreed European disclosure policy for short selling.
View the FSA Feedback Statement to DP09/01 Short Selling.
Boerse Stuttgart sees trading volumes bounce back in September
October 1, 2009--Private investors trade volumes worth EUR 7.7 billion in September/ all asset classes up on previous month / Oliver Hans: "ETFs on Europe's biggest standard indices popular with investors”/ equities trading up by 18 percent
According to the order book statistics of Boerse Stuttgart, Germany’s leading stock exchange for private investors, trading volumes in September 2009 were up by around 7 percent on the previous month, rising to almost EUR 7.7 billion. Trading volumes were down by 31 percent in a year-on-year comparison. In September Boerse Stuttgart saw an increase in turnover across all asset classes in comparison with August 2009. With a growth of 26 percent on the previous month and more than 65 percent on September 2008, trading volumes in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continued to increase strongly at the Stuttgart stock exchange. At EUR 354 million, volumes have more than doubled between January and September in a year-on-year comparison.
According to the order book statistics of Boerse Stuttgart, Germany’s leading stock exchange for private investors, trading volumes in September 2009 were up by around 7 percent on the previous month, rising to almost EUR 7.7 billion. Trading volumes were down by 31 percent in a year-on-year comparison. In September Boerse Stuttgart saw an increase in turnover across all asset classes in comparison with August 2009. With a growth of 26 percent on the previous month and more than 65 percent on September 2008, trading volumes in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continued to increase strongly at the Stuttgart stock exchange. At EUR 354 million, volumes have more than doubled between January and September in a year-on-year comparison.
“After a traditionally weak August, private investors at the Stuttgart stock exchange were back with a vengeance in September. It is still ETFs, especially on the big European standard indices, that are popular with investors,” said Oliver Hans, Managing Director of Baden-Wuerttembergische Wertpapierboerse.
At EUR 3.9 billion, securitised derivatives, such as certificates, warrants and knock-out products, accounted for the lion’s share of volumes traded on the stock exchange. Trading in structured products was up by more than 6 percent on the previous month. Leverage products grew by almost 9 percent in comparison with August, with volumes reaching EUR 2.1 billion. Investment products went up by around 3 percent in comparison with the previous month, rising to almost EUR 1.8 billion.
The second biggest asset class at the Stuttgart stock exchange (measured in terms of turnover) was bond trading with volumes over EUR 2.3 billion, which is slightly above the figure reported for August 2009. Vigorous trading activities were recorded in corporate bonds with volumes reaching EUR 1.4 billion. Trading in these assets grew by 30 percent in comparison with August 2009 and has nearly doubled since September 2008. This makes Boerse Stuttgart Germany’s leading stock market for bonds.
At EUR 907 million, trading in equities was up by more than 18 percent on the previous month’s figure. Of this EUR 680 million was accounted for by domestic equities, corresponding to a growth of 18 percent. International equities reached volumes of EUR 227 million, a growth of 20 percent in comparison with the previous month.
LSE in talks to buy Turquoise
October 1, 2009--The London Stock Exchange is in exclusive talks to buy Turquoise, the trading platform launched last year to compete aggressively with the London market and cut trading costs.
The news comes just days after the LSE, headed by Xavier Rolet, the former Lehman Brothers banker who succeeded Dame Clara Furse as chief executive earlier this year, appointed Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley to advise on mergers and acquisitions activity by the group.
107 billion euros turnover at Deutsche Börse in September
15 million trades executed on Xetra/
Total volume of 122 billion euros traded on all stock exchanges in Germany
In September, 107.4 billion euros were traded on Xetra® and on the floor at
October 1, 2009--a decrease of 53 percent year-on-year (September 2008:
229.8
billion euros). Of the 107.4 billion euros, 100.4 billion euros were traded
on Xetra, a decrease of 54 percent year-on-year (September 2008: 219.7 billion
euros). 7.0 billion euros were traded on the floor.
Turnover in German equities amounted to 92.8 billion euros, while foreign
equities turnover stood at 11.5 billion euros. Xetra and the floor at Börse
Frankfurt accounted for 97 percent of the transaction volume in German equities on all stock exchanges in Germany. 92 percent of foreign equities traded on stock exchanges in Germany were traded on Xetra and on the floor in Frankfurt.
In September, 15 million transactions were executed on Xetra, a decrease of 33 percent against the same period last year (September 2008: 22 million).
According to the Xetra liquidity measure (XLM), SAP AG was the most liquid DAX® blue chip in September with 7.2 basis points (bp) for an order volume of 100,000 euros. Hochtief AG was the most liquid MDAX® stock with 26.4 bp.
The most liquid ETF was the db-x-trackers II EONIA T.R. 1C with 0.3 bp. The most liquid foreign stock was Royal Dutch Shell with 15.1 bp. XLM measures liquidity in electronic securities trading on the basis of the implicit transaction costs. It is expressed in basis points (1 bp = 0.01 percent); a low XLM denotes high liquidity in a security.
Deutsche Bank AG was the DAX stock with the highest turnover on Xetra in September at 6.1 billion euros. HeidelbergCement AG was the top MDAX stock at 1.8 billion euros, while Aareal Bank AG led the SDAX® stocks at 46 million euros and Infineon Technologies AG headed the TecDAX® at 1.1 billion euros.
At 1.4 billion euros, the iShares DAX was the exchange-traded fund with the highest turnover.
On all stock exchanges in Germany 121.7 billion euros were traded in
September
according to orderbook turnover statistics – a decrease of 51 percent
compared
year-on-year (September 2008: 250.4 billion euros). This total includes
110.5
billion euros in equities, warrants and exchange-traded funds, as well as
11.1
billion euros in fixed-income securities.
ETF Securities' assets rise to all-time high of USD15bn
October 1, 2009--ETF Securities' assets under management have surged to an all-time high of USD15bn on the back of investor interest in hard assets as deteriorating government finances and aggressive quantitative easing policies raise concerns about the outlook for major currencies and medium-term inflation risks.
AUM has increased by USD7.9bn this year, with 78 per cent of the increase driven by investor inflows, as ETF Securities expanded its geographical coverage with precious metals ETCs listings on the New York and the Tokyo Stock Exchanges.
Unscheduled free float adjustment in MDAX
October 1, 2009--Adjustment for HeidelbergCement AG as of 5 October 2009
Deutsche Börse has announced an unscheduled adjustment to the free float of HeidelbergCement AG in MDAX®. Due to an increase in share capital of
HeidelbergCement AG, the free float of the MDAX member altered by more than
10
percentage points. According to the index rules, the company’s free float
will
be increased from the current 21.18 percent to 75.58 percent.
The adjustment will be effective next Monday, 5 October 2009.
The next regular review of the Deutsche Börse equity indices is scheduled for 3 December 2009.
DB Index Research -- Weekly ETF Reports -- Europe
September 30, 2009--Highlights
ETF Volume
Exchange based Equity ETF turnover rose by 2.2% on the previous week. Daily turnover for the previous week was E1.2bn. European fixed income ETF turnover remained at about the same level at E181m, with money market ETFs continuing to be the main focus.
In exchange based bond ETFs, db x-trackers II EONIA TR Index ETF has the highest daily turnover of E19.67m. Among the Equity ETFs, iShares DAX (DE) has the highest daily turnover of E62.57m.
There were 14 new listing in the last week. BNP Paribas listed four new ETFs focusing on the BRIC countries on NYSE Paris and listed 9 ETFs on Deutsche Borse. db x-trackers listed one new ETF on Deutsche Borse.
European Style ETFs, led by short and leveraged products, kept its position as the leading product area with total turnover of E357m accounting for 30.94% of total ETF turnover, followed by European Regional ETFs with total turnover of E310m with 26.90% of total turnover. The DAX ETFs remain the dominant country products with total average daily volume of E143m across the nine listed products and accounting for 12.4% of all equity ETF volume.
DJ Euro STOXX 50 ETFs accounted for 13.3% of turnover trading E154m per day with liquidity split across 25 ETFs and 41 different listings on 9 exchanges.
Market Share
The Deutsche Borse XTF platform has the largest market share with 35.2% of total turnover. The Euronext NextTrack platform has 22.3% market share. The LSE’s combined Italian Exchange and London market share is now 26.3%.
Assets under Management (AUM)
Total European Equity related AUM remained at about the same level at E98.7bn during last week. AUM for DJ Euro STOXX 50 ETFs was E19.6bn accounting for 19.9% of total European AUM. Fixed Income ETF AUM remained at about the same level at E32.9bn.
Overall, the largest ETF by AUM was the Equity based ETF, Lyxor ETF DJ Euro STOXX 50 with AUM of E5.0bn. The largest Fixed Income ETF by AUM was the iShares € Corporate Bond with AUM of E3.2bn.
To request a copy of the report click here
Athens Exchange S.A.: The First Multimarket ETF On The New Greek Turkish Index GT30
September 30, 2009--The calculation of GT30, the common index of Athens and Istanbul Stock Exchanges started on 28th September 2009. GT30 is calculated by STOXX Ltd and represents the trend of the thirty biggest in terms of capitalization shares of the two exchanges.
NBG Asset Management S.A. is going to issue the first multimarket ETF tracking the new Greek Turkish index GT30. The creation of the product as well as its launch in the Greek market will take place in the beginning of 2010.
This ETF gives investors the opportunity to invest simultaneously in the two markets with just one trade. Easy access to foreign markets is launched this way, with Turkey being the first one.
The issue of new ETFs listed in ATHEX, facilitates the approaching of investors? needs in a more versatile manner and making access in foreign markets simple and flexible.
Boerse Stuttgart extends scope of Euwax Sentiment Index
Intraday figures particularly valuable to investors with short-term horizons /
Lammersdorf: Euwax Sentiment proving to be a popular information tool for market assessments
September 30, 2009--
Beginning today, Boerse Stuttgart, Europe’s leading exchange for investment and leverage products, will be offering investors an extended version of the Euwax Sentiment Index. The new intraday chart will now be updated every minute in response to many requests from retail investors, for whose investment behaviour an ongoing, intraday version of the index is of real value. Boerse Stuttgart’s retail investor index offers a scientifically based picture of the investment behaviour of retail investors and provides an important aid in decision-making.
“In just a short time, Euwax Sentiment has proven to be a popular information tool among retail investors for their market assessments,” notes Christoph Lammersdorf, CEO of Boerse Stuttgart Holding GmbH. “We took the decision to extend the scope of the index as a result of the very positive feedback we received from the market and from investors.”
The Euwax Sentiment Index reflects the market estimation of retail investors within a single day on a scale from minus 100 to plus 100. The more positive the figure, the more strongly investors believe markets are rising. Equally, a negative figure suggests investors expect prices to fall. “The intraday picture provided by the Euwax Sentiment Index is particularly helpful to investors with a very short-term horizon as it allows them to analyse market sentiment in real time and take it into account in their trading decisions,” says Matthias Burghardt, Head of the Euwax Sentiment project.
Index values are calculated by Boerse Stuttgart on the basis of all near-market orders executed within the last thirty minutes but including at least ten percent of all the orders executed on the day. This ensures that the index is not only able to react to short-term sentiment fluctuations but also reflects the behaviour of a representative number of retail investors. The Euwax Sentiment Index is updated every minute and published on the website of Boerse Stuttgart at www.boerse-stuttgart.de/euwax-sentiment.
In addition to the intraday chart, investors will still be able to view the 3-month and 12-month progress charts for the Euwax Sentiment retail investor index. At present, the index is mainly hovering between minus 30 and zero. Given the huge upward movements in the market over recent weeks, it appears that short-term investors on Euwax are becoming more sceptical. The index currently reflects a growing number of put buys. The trend therefore shows the majority of market participants behaving in the expectation of falling prices.
