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STOXX announces new composition of Sustainability, Select Dividend, Style and Grand Prix Indices
STOXX ANNOUNCES NEW COMPOSITION OF SUSTAINABILITY, SELECT DIVIDEND, STYLE AND GRAND PRIX INDICES
Results of the Review to be Effective on March 21, 2011
March 7, 2011--STOXX Limited, the market-moving provider of innovative, substantial and global index concepts, today announced the results of the annual review of the STOXX Select Dividend Index series and the STOXX Global Grand Prix Index; as well as the result of the semi-annual review of the STOXX TMI Growth and STOXX TMI Value indices, its respective large, mid- and small sub-indices and the respective indices for the euro zone.
Furthermore, the results of an extraordinary review of the STOXX Sustainability Indices are being announced as Bank Sarasin & Co. Ltd. took over the research and analysis for the indices earlier this year. All changes will be effective on March 21, 2011.
STOXX Sustainability Indices
The STOXX Sustainability Indices have been reviewed extraordinarily as Bank Sarasin took over the research and analysis of the index components earlier this year. While the methodology of the indices remains unchanged, components are now selected from the STOXX Europe 600 Index according to Bank Sarasin’s rating. In order to be included in the STOXX Sustainability Indices, a company must reach a “positive overall sustainability rating” according to Bank Sarasin’s Sustainability Matrix. The rating is composed of “industry rating” and “company rating.”
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Source: STOXX
Eurex KOSPI Product hits important milestone
More than 500,000 contracts traded since the launch of the Eurex/KRX Link
March 7, 2011--The Eurex KOSPI Product exceeded 500,000 traded contracts last Friday for the first time since its launch on 30 August 2010. Average daily volume has been increasing steadily, reaching more than 11,000 contracts in March 2011. On 18 January, Eurex achieved a new daily record of more than 64,000 traded contracts.
“Our Eurex KOSPI Product has been very successful since its introduction,” said Michael Peters, Eurex Executive Board member. “This is due to our close partnership with the Korea Exchange to offer our customers access to the most widely traded index derivative contract in the world. Our participants do not only trade via the order book but also use our block trading functionality, which allows members to place OTC transactions directly and efficiently into the Eurex clearing system.” Currently, block trades of this product can only be executed on Eurex.
“The Eurex KOSPI Product is a linked derivative product that provides more convenient access to KOSPI 200 Options for European customers,” said In-Soo Kim, KRX executive director. “This milestone reflects the high acceptance of the Eurex KOSPI Product as an investment tool for global investors. KRX and Eurex will continue to work closely together with market participants to develop ways to further increase liquidity in the Eurex KOSPI Product.”
Volumes are expected to rise as KRX and Eurex further develop the after-hours market for the world’s most widely traded derivatives contract. Bid-ask spreads for the Eurex KOSPI Product have narrowed considerably, and the number of active end-customers as well as Eurex and KRX members continues to expand rapidly. Currently, eleven KRX and Eurex members are active in the Eurex KOSPI Product, among them two market makers. There are 12 additional KRX and Eurex members who are preparing to participate in the Eurex/KRX Link.
The Eurex KOSPI Product is a daily futures contract based on the KOSPI 200 options available on the Korea Exchange (KRX). The futures contracts expire at the end of each trading day and any open positions are transferred to KRX to establish a position in the KOPSI 200 option. This product cooperation between Eurex and KRX enables market participants to trade KOSPI 200 options during European and North American trading hours.
Source: Eurex
Curbs on ‘naked’ short selling closer after EU vote
March 7, 2011--A ban on uncovered credit default swaps on sovereign debt and an effective prohibition of “naked” short selling of securities in Europe moved closer on Monday night after winning the backing of European Union lawmakers.
The vote, in the European Parliament on Monday evening, was greeted with dismay by sections of the financial services industry, with hedge funds warning that it would make sovereign debt markets less efficient, liquid and transparent, and push up the cost of borrowing.
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Source: FT.com
NASDAQ OMX introduces indexes for Swedish credit bond market
March 7, 2011--NASDAQ OMX (NASDAQ:NDAQ) today introduces a new index series for the Swedish credit bond market. The NASDAQ OMX Credit SEK Index series is uniquely designed to provide exposure to a portfolio of corporate and municipality investment-grade bonds denominated in Swedish Krona (SEK). Calculation of the indexes and index analytical values are based on daily end-of-day market mid valuations supplied to NASDAQ OMX by SEB.
Magdalena Hartman, Vice President NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group said: "Until today there has been a lack of means to measure the performance of the Swedish credit market. With this new index series investors, asset managers and analysts will for the first time gain access to a reliable benchmark for SEK denominated credit bonds to support research and development of new financial products."
Europe to toughen banks ' stress tests: report Recognising the shortcomings of last year's exercise, EBA chairman Andrea Enria told the FT he was determined to make the exercise more credible and to use it as a trigger for a thorough recapitalisation of Europe's weakest banks.
read more 07 Mar 2011 Inclusion of aviation in the EU ETS: Commission publishes historical emissions data on which allocations will be based read more EU proposals a welcome first step towards making too-big-to-fail a thing of the past Similar measures were introduced in the UK by the Banking Act 2009 and Financial Services Act 2010, which give the Bank of England powers to deal with a failing firm and require all banks to have in place recovery and resolution plans.
In its response to the European Commission’s consultation, the BBA stresses: no firm should be considered too big to be subject to an orderly resolution process in the event of its failure; read more European Parliament: MEPs Crack Down On Sovereign Debt Speculation And Naked Short Selling Insuring against risk The committee position would prohibit anyone from being involved in credit default swap (CDS) transactions if they do not already own sovereign debt linked to that CDS ("naked" CDS trading), or securities whose price depends heavily on the performance of the country, such as shares in a major company based there. This position therefore innovates, not only by banning CDS naked trading, but also by introducing a correlation that would allow investment firms some room for manoeuvre. One day to settle "naked" short sales Although the committee position does not entirely ban "naked" short selling, it sets a very tight deadline for converting a naked short sale into a short sale. By the end of the trading day, any naked short sales undertaken must have been converted, states the position. A seller failing to make the conversion on time would incur fines which, the amended text states, "must be sufficiently high to prohibit any profits being made". The position adopted in committee retains the Commission's tough "locate and reserve rule", whereby a seller must not only identify from where it plans to borrow the shares in question, but must also have a guarantee that it will indeed be able to borrow them when the time comes. Reporting more but less often
The committee position imposes further reporting requirements on investment firms, particularly in exceptional circumstances. It also allows national supervisory authorities to require lenders to notify them in exceptional situations. In emergencies, national authorities will be also required to provide more information within 24 hours to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), when requested. On the other hand, the committee position only requires investment firms to report on their short sale transactions at the end of the trading day, rather than reporting each short sale as it happens, as proposed by the Commission. Investors would also be required to publically disclose less information than would have been required by the Commission's original proposal. Next steps
MEPs primarily involved with steering the regulation through Parliament will now sit down with Member States to thrash out a deal which can be then be tabled for a plenary vote in the coming months. The regulation is expected to be in force by 2012. Poland deficit to reach 3% in 2013, says PM "It seems it would be difficult to bring the deficit down to 3.0 percent in 2012. But a level in the range of 3.5 percent, 3.7 percent to 3.8 percent should be acceptable to the (European) Commission," he said.
read more DB Global Equity Index and ETF Research : Commodities gain as the Equity ETF market registers its first negative cash flow week for 2011 ETFs tracking developed markets outside of Europe received the bulk of equity cash flows with €294 million inflows in the previous week. European developed market ETFs witnessed cash outflows of €356 million. Emerging market ETFs also saw net outflows of €90 million for the previous week. European sector ETFs which had been consistently attracting healthy inflows week on week since the start of the year reversed direction and ended the week with €129 million in net cash outflows. Fixed Income ETFs had a flat week with €34 million in net cash flows. Money market ETFs registered outflows of €201 million and corporates welcomed €109 million inflows in the previous week. Assets Under Management (AUM): Decline in equity markets eroded assets Total European ETP assets decreased by 1.4% and ended the previous week at €236.3 billion. Equity ETFs led the decline by shaving off €4 billion in the previous week. Fixed Income ETF assets were flat and ended the previous week at €41.6 billion. Commodities emerged as the only major asset class to register modest weekly gains and ended the week at €39.1 billion in assets. Commodity ETPs added €0.7 billion in assets thanks to rising energy and precious metals prices which include crude oil, gasoline, gold and silver. On-Exchange Total Weekly Turnover: Rise in equity and commodity trading activity pushes turnover to year highs Weekly total on-exchange ETP total turnover registered a sharp increase of 29% to end the week at €12.9 billion. This represents gains of close to €2.9 billion from the week that ended 18th Feb 2011 when weekly total turnover figures were close to €10 billion. Equities contributed nearly 75% to this increase by adding close to €2.2 billion to total ETP turnover.
European single country and broad equity benchmarks added more than €1 billion in turnover in the past week. Weekly ETF turnover in short and leveraged equity ETFs went up by €0.7 billion signaling increased directional positions on equity benchmarks.
Fixed Income ETF turnover declined by 19% and ended the week at €0.8 billion.
New ETP Product Launch Calendar: 4 new cross-listings on Borsa Italiana.
Product launches took a pause in the previous week with no new product launches. Credit Suisse extended the reach of their newly launched equity and fixed income ETFs by cross-listing those on Borsa Italiana. These included 2 equity ETFs on MSCI World and alternative energy and 2 fixed income ETFs tracking US & European money market rates. To request a copy of the report If you are looking for a particuliar article and can not find it, please feel free to contact us for assistace.
Source: NASDAQ OMX
March 7, 2011--European banking regulators are to toughen stress tests on banks after last year's results failed to uncover the extent of financial turmoil at some Irish lenders, the Financial Times reported Monday.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) is preparing to introduce a 'near fail' category as part of a mechanism to force recapitalisations on weaker banks, the FT said.
Source: EUbusiness
March 7, 2011--The European Commission has, today, taken an important step in preparing for the full inclusion of aviation in the EU's emissions trading system (EU ETS) from 1 January next year. The European Commission has decided on the historical aviation emissions which will be used to calculate the number of aviation allowances to be available from 2012.
Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action, said: ''Emissions from aviation are growing faster than from any other sector, and all forecasts indicate they will continue to do so under business as usual conditions. Firm action is needed. By publishing the data on which allocations will be based, we prepare for the full inclusion of aviation in the emissions trading system.''
Source: European Commission
March 7, 2011--European proposals to reduce the probability of financial crises and to manage them if they occur should help level the regulatory playing field with the UK, the British Bankers’ Association said today.
The European Commission’s proposals for the recovery and resolution of financial firms set out measures to strengthen the supervision of financial institutions and mechanisms to ensure that, if problems do arise, firms can be allowed to fail without detriment to the customer and with minimal impact on the wider economy.
Source: British Bankers’ Association (BBA)
March 7, 2011--A ban on certain trades in sovereign bonds, and requirement that traders settle their uncovered positions by the end of each trading day, were two key outcomes of Monday's Economic Affairs Committee vote on a draft EU regulation on short selling and credit default swaps. MEPs also inserted a requirement that short sale transactions be reported less often, but beefed up the rules to ensure that fines are dissuasive
"Short selling", whereby speculators bet on a fall rather than a rise in the price of a security to make a profit, and "credit default swaps", essentially to insure against a state defaulting on its debt obligations, were both heavily implicated in Europe's recent sovereign debt crises. This regulation, being steered through Parliament by Pascal Canfin (Greens/EFA, FR), takes one more step towards curbing speculation and improving transparency in the financial services sector.
Source: European Parliament
March 4, 2011--- Poland will rein in its public deficit to 3.0 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday in Warsaw.
"It shouldn't be difficult to bring the public deficit to 3.0 percent by 2013 without too many painful measures," Tusk said quoted by TVP Polish television.
Source: EUbusiness
Investment Outlook: Investors continue to turn to commodities
March 4, 2011--quity markets had a rough week around Europe last week, with all major indices experiencing large drops. Germany’s DAX dropped 3.3%, France’s CAC fell 2.1%, the UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.3% and the broad European Euro Stoxx 50 dropped 2.7%. This negative equity market climate contributed to the European ETP industry experiencing negative equity flows. It also largely contributed to a 1.4% decline in ETP assets. The rise in commodity prices notably crude oil and gold failed to offset this decline and European ETP assets lost €3.4 billion to end the week at €236.3 billion.
Cash inflows were muted for the week that finished on 25th Feb, registering inflows of €253 million as compared to €938 million in the week ended 18th Feb 2011.
ETCs attracted most of the cash inflows [€396 million] of this week’s slim pickings. Within commodities, gold led the segment’s flows and collected €114 million followed by crude oil which received €95 million of net cash flows in the past week. Broad commodity benchmarks gathered €89 million in the past week and retained the top spot in year to date commodity ETP flow figures with over €635 million.
Source: Deutsche Bank Global Equity Index & ETF Research
