Ireland's four-year austerity plan: main points
November 24, 2010-- Heavily-indebted Ireland published a four-year austerity roadmap on Wednesday in a key step towards receiving an international bailout of at least 85 billion euros (114 billion dollars).
Under-fire Prime Minister Brian Cowen has delivered a series of measures to slash a huge deficit and save 15 billion euros (20 billion dollars) by 2014.
Wednesday's austerity package comprised 10 billion euros of spending cuts and 5.0 billion euros in taxation hikes.
A budget will follow on December 7, which Cowen says must be passed by parliament before he will call a general election in the crisis-hit eurozone nation.
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Source: EUbusiness
Source Physical Gold P-ETC granted UK reporting status
November 24, 2010--Source has received confirmation from HM Revenue & Customs that the Source Physical Gold P-ETC has been granted UK reporting status with effect from 30 June 2009, allowing the product to achieve capital gains status for UK tax purposes.
In December 2009, a new set of rules came into effect in the UK. Under these rules, offshore funds now avoid disadvantageous treatment by qualifying for reporting status instead of distributor status.
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Source: ETF Express
NYSE Euronext to launch six strategy indices
November 24, 2010--NYSE Euronext today announced the expansion of its range of strategy indices with the launch of six new products based on the CAC 40 index.
Three new Leverage indices track the performance of a strategy that trebles to quintuples exposure to the CAC 40 index with the support of short-term financing. In a rising market, they thus enable investors to earn a daily return that amplifies that of the underlying index, minus the financing cost embedded in the strategy.
Three new Short indices track the performance of a strategy that combines a treble to quintuple inverse exposure to the underlying index with the exposure to a risk-free money-market instrument. In a falling market, they thus enable investors to earn a positive daily return that is the inverse of the underlying index.
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Source: NYSE Euronext
EU launches non-financial reporting consultation: UK MPs call to bolster OFR
EU appears minded to seek greater ESG disclosure by companies as UK MPs aim to toughen director reporting duties.
November 24, 2010--The European Commission (EC), the executive body of the European Union (EU), has launched an online public consultation on non-financial disclosure by companies, which observers believe could herald a shift to greater ESG disclosure in corporate reporting. The deadline for replies to the consultation is 24 January, 2011.
Speaking recently at RI’s ESG Europe 2010 conference in Amsterdam, Thomas Dodd, CSR co-ordinator at the Enterprise and Industry DG of the European Commission, said ESG disclosure rules were increasingly likely to be taken on board by the Commission. The EC is currently involved in a number of major investment and CSR reviews in the wake of the financial crisis, including a highly anticipated green paper on corporate governance, expected to be finalised early next year.
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Soiurce: Responsible Investor
Eurex Clearing, Eurex Repo and Clearstream to Optimize Use of Collateral
Effective 26 November, Eurex Clearing customers can re-use GC Pooling collateral for margining // Joint initiative of Eurex Clearing, Eurex Repo and Clearstream for more efficient use of collateral // Eurex Repo GC Pooling average outstanding volume reached more than € 100 billion
November 24, 2010-- Eurex Clearing, Eurex Repo and Clearstream announced today that as of 26 November Eurex Clearing customers participating in the GC Pooling trading at Eurex Repo will be in a position to re-use GC Pooling collateral to fulfil their overall Eurex Clearing margin obligations.
Eurex Clearing members can make use of the new offering via their existing infrastructure. The Eurex Clearing member only has to set an exposure amount while the allocation of the individual collateral securities will be managed by Clearstream’s collateral management system Xemac up to the defined exposure amount.
Thomas Book, member of the Executive Board of Eurex, said: “Eurex Clearing members now have an additional option to fulfil their margin obligations by accessing and re-using the multi-billion euros repo collateral pool created by trading on Eurex Repo. With this new offering we continue to meet the demand of our customers for an efficient use of collateral, reducing the operational costs and operational effort of our clearing members while maintaining the integrity of the clearinghouse.”
Marcel Naas, Managing Director of Eurex Repo, said: “We continue to observe a growing need for secured money market transactions in an environment where collateral is scarce. Eurex Repo now expands the re-use possibility of collateral: cash providers can allocate collateral they received from cash takers to Eurex Clearing in the scope of the GC Pooling® ECB basket consisting of high-grade ECB-eligible instruments.”
Stefan Lepp, member of the Clearstream Executive Board, said: “This initiative is another step to grow and improve our Global Risk Management and Liquidity Hub. As the leading service provider in the area of integrated and international collateral and liquidity management, Clearstream continues to follow its global securities financing strategy to provide its customers the service to cover their global exposure through a consolidated and optimized collateral pool.”
Overall, Eurex Repo markets have all seen tremendous growth in 2010 and reached in September a new average outstanding volume record of a total of € 255.3 billion. The fastest growing market is GC Pooling®, which achieved an average outstanding volume of € 93 billion in October 2010 compared to € 75 billion in October 2009. The current record was on 28 September 2010 with a daily outstanding volume of € 109 billion. Simultaneously, the number of users has increased from 35 in January 2010 to currently 49. GC Pooling consists of a Euro and a US Dollar segment.
Source: Eurex
STOXX Changes Composition of Benchmark Indices
Results of the Fourth Regular Quarterly Review to be Effective on December 20, 2010
November 24, 2010--STOXX Limited, a global index provider and creator of the leading European equity indices, today announced the new composition of the STOXX Global 1800 Index, STOXX Europe Total Market Index, STOXX Europe 600 Index, STOXX Americas 600 Index, STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 Index, STOXX EU Enlarged Total Market Index, STOXX Eastern Europe Total Market Index, STOXX Eastern Europe 300 Index and their sub- and sector indices, as well as that of the STOXX Europe Football Index and STOXX Europe Private Equity 20 Index.
Effective as of the open of European markets on December 20, 2010, the following stocks will be added to and deleted from the STOXX Europe 600 Index and its respective size
and sector indices:
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Source: STOXX
All floor trading in Frankfurt to take place through Xetra specialists from May 2011
Exchange Council of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange resolves early termination of lead-broker based floor trading/ Trading Hall remains in use/ Exchange’s competitive position and economic role ensured
November 24, 2010--The Exchange Council of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange resolved on Wednesday to terminate lead-broker based floor trading and to introduce the Xetra specialist model for shares and bonds as well, with effect from 23 May 2011.
From this date on, trading will take place exclusively via the Xetra system. Xetra uses specialists who ensure sufficient liquidity in trading. Despite the termination of lead-broker based floor trading using the Xontro system, the presence of specialists will ensure that the Trading Hall of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse, FWB) remains in operation.
With the transition to the Xetra specialist model, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is strengthening its position amid increasing competition on the European market. Xetra’s international orientation and the performance requirements of its specialists will further increase the market quality of the FWB. Since 2008, the Xetra specialist model has been successfully used for trading structured products on Scoach as well as in fund trading on the FWB.
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Source: Deutsche Börse
New financial market supervision system signed into law
November 24, 2010--The President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, and Belgium's State Secretary for European Affairs, Olivier Chastel, on Wednesday formally signed into law the financial supervision package, which will establish new authorities oversee the operation of banks, securities markets and insurance companies, as well as monitoring the build up of risk in the economic system as a whole.
The new watchdogs are set to be operational by 2011 and will have tough new powers to settle disputes among national financial supervisors, to ban risky financial products and activities, and to directly supervise credit rating agencies. If national supervisors fail to act, then the authorities may also impose decisions directly on financial institutions, such as banks, so as to remedy breaches of EU law.
Mr Buzek said, "This legislative package is one of the key cornerstones in rebuilding economic growth in the EU. The new and strengthened financial supervisory authorities will help to ensure that we avoid deep financial crises in the future. It is now essential to make fast progress towards a strong economic governance model for the Eurozone which is needed to effectively respond to market tensions."
Source: European Parliament,
ETF Landscape: European STOXX 600 Sector ETF Net Flows week ending 19-Nov-10
November 24, 2010--For the week ending 19 November 2010, there were US$64.7 Mn net inflows to STOXX Europe 600 sector ETFs. The largest sector ETF net inflows last week were in insurance with US$57.2 Mn and automobiles and parts with US$48.0 Mn while industrial goods and services experienced net outflows of US$62.5 Mn.
Year-to-date, STOXX Europe 600 sector ETFs have seen US$542.3 Mn net inflows. Banks sector ETFs have seen the largest net inflows with US$252.8 Mn, followed by utilities with US$106.9 Mn while food and beverage has experienced the largest net outflows of US$152.7 Mn YTD.
As of 19 November 2010, there is US$10.2 Bn AUM invested in the STOXX sector ETFs which is more than double the US$4.5 Bn open interest in the sector futures. The ETF AUM is greater than the open interest in the corresponding futures contract in 17 out of 19 sectors.
to request report
Source: Global ETF Research & Implementation Strategy Team, BlackRock
London Stock Exchange ETFs and ETPs Update
November 24, 2010--Trading Statistics October 2010
Value traded in ETFs have seen a 24% increase this month compared with figures for September and ETPs have seen a 4% increase.
On a year-on-year comparison, value traded in ETFs have increased 33% and ETPs 12% in October 2010 from October 2009.
News
ComStage, a new ETF issuer, introduced 5 new ETFs in October now trading on the Main Market. Other ETF providers who have introduced new instruments include HSBC, iShares and Lyxor.
Source: London Stock Exchange
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