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Warning over pension deficits
October 2, 2009--Rising equity markets are not sufficient reason for companies with large pension fund deficits to relax, according to a leading pensions adviser.
In spite of a revival in markets that has boosted the battered value of equities used to finance pension commitments, Mercer has warned that falling spreads on corporate bonds could increase deficits further.
Mercer, which advises companies on retirement schemes and other benefits in 40 countries, said the positive impact of rising equities has been more than outweighed by the effect of falling credit spreads on corporate bonds from record highs to more normal levels.
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Source: FT.com
Bankers warn on regulation's threat to growth
October 2, 2009-A deluge of financial regulations threatens to harm economic growth, one of the world’s top bankers said on Friday, in what appeared to be the start of a concerted fightback by the industry against feared regulatory overkill.
Josef Ackermann, chairman of the Institute of International Finance, the global bankers’ association, and head of Deutsche Bank, said governments were not paying enough attention to the aggregate impact of the reforms being proposed.
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Source: FT.com
BNP Paribas To Close In 'Grey List' Territories
October 2, 2009--French bank BNP Paribas has announced that it will close its activities in jurisdictions that have failed to comply with the OECD standard on transparency and information exchange.
Speaking to French radio station Europe 1, Chief Executive, Baudouin Prot said that the bank’s subsidiaries in jurisdictions featured on the OECD’s ‘grey list’ would be closed, without giving a timescale. Prot did however hint that the proposal would not be implemented immediately and that there was flexibility on the matter, noting that the list’s composition evolved regularly.
According to Prot, BNP Paribas has "half a dozen" subsidiaries in low tax jurisdictions, but only two, in the Bahamas and Panama, are located in OECD 'grey listed' territories.
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Source:Investorsoffshore. com
db x-trackers achieves distributing fund status for 63 ETFs
October 2, 2009--db x-trackers, Deutsche Bank’s exchange-traded funds platform, has been granted distributing fund status by HM Revenue & Customs for the accounting period 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2008.
The status has been granted to equity, commodity, foreign exchange and shariah-compliant ETFs available from db x-trackers during 2008 and includes 63 ETFs listed on the LSE.
Distribution funds status means that any gains made on the disposal of the ETFs would be regarded as a capital gain for UK individuals or a chargeable gain for UK corporates if the shares are certified as distributing funds throughout the investor’s entire period of ownership. The current rate of capital gains tax is 18 per cent for UK individuals.
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Source: ETF Express
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."
Source: Newedge
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.
Source: FSA.gov.uk
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.
Source: Boerse Stuttgart
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.
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Source: FT.com
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.
Source: Deutsche Börse
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.
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Source: ETF Express
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