UK official holdings of international reserves-July 2010
August 4, 2010--This monthly press notice shows details of movements in July in the UK’s official holdings of international reserves, which consist of gold, foreign currency assets and International Monetary Fund assets. These reserves are maintained primarily so that the UK Government’s reserves could be used to intervene to support Sterling, or the Bank of England’s reserves could be used to support the Bank’s monetary policy objectives.
If such interventions were to occur, then they would be shown and explained in this release. The Background note at the end of this release explains more about the reserves, and about these statistics.
In summary this month’s release shows that, in July 2010:
No intervention operations were undertaken.
Movements in reserves and levels of reserves were as follows:
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Source: HM Treasury
Eurex Marks One-year Anniversary of Agriculture Derivatives Segment
Successful expansion into new non-financial asset class
August 3, 2010--The international derivatives exchange Eurex celebrates the first anniversary of its agriculture derivatives segment. Since its introduction on 20 July 2009, trading volume, open interest and market interest have been rising consistently.
Since the launch, open interest for the agricultural product suite has grown more than 50 percent: at the end of July it stood at around 5,700 contracts. The future on European processing potatoes, in particular, has experienced significant growth with 10,512 contracts traded in July – this is the first time it has exceeded the 10,000-contract mark in a given month. Already in June, the future had set a new monthly record of 4,629 contracts.
“Since the introduction of the agriculture derivatives segment last year, we’ve seen a steady increase in the number and types of member firms who use the contracts to hedge against price fluctuations in the respective European markets. Based on this growing demand, we also launched futures on butter and skimmed milk powder earlier this year,” said Peter Reitz, member of the Eurex Executive Board. “As this asset class continues to mature, we plan to further develop our product offerings to benefit a broad range of industry participants, from farmers, producers, and processing firms to institutional investors.”
Futures on European processing potatoes, London potatoes, hogs and piglets have been available on Eurex since July 2009. Based on consultations with customers and industry participants, Eurex further expanded the agriculture segment in May 2010 by introducing futures on butter and skimmed milk powder. Eurex is the first European exchange to offer these products, which have already seen first trades in the order book.
Source: Eurex
Funds totaling TL 1.6 billion raised through the Istanbul Stock Exchange in 2010
August 3, 2010--Eighteen companies offered their shares to the public through the Istanbul Stock Exchange during the first seven months of 2010, raising funds in excess of TL 1.6 billion.
Of these companies, the amount of the funds that 14 companies that went public have raised is well over TL 1.250 million. As a result of the increased interest for the Turkish capital markets following the Initial Public Offering (IPO) Campaign realized in Istanbul on May 7-8, the Istanbul Stock Exchange has registered its best performance in terms of the number of IPOs since 2000.
During the first half of 2010, Istanbul Stock Exchange also made a significant leap in terms of the variety of the financial instruments traded. Non-voting shares and warrants were listed on the ISE for the first time. Furthermore, as a consequence of the decreased public borrowing requirement, private sector borrowing instruments, which have remained inactive so far, have revived. During the first half of 2010, five companies raised funds amounting to TL 281 million through bond issues. Currently, two listing applications (one for a corporate bond, and another for a bank bill) totaling TL 240 million exist at the ISE.
Moreover, an “Offerings Market for Qualified Investors” was launched in the ISE, where the joint stock companies traded on the ISE may issue debt securities without preparing a prospectus and a circular, and is open for trade for qualified investors only. The first application for the relevant market was filed on July 28, 2010.
Source: Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE)
Qbasis plans UK launch for managed futures ETF
August 3, 2010--Qbasis, a Liechtenstein-based hedge fund, has gained approval from UK regulators to start marketing the Qbasis Futures Fund, the first managed futures ETF.
The fund will replicate the investment strategy of the Qbasis managed futures hedge fund but at a far lower cost for retail investors
The ETF will charge 75 basis points a year, compared with 2.5 per cent plus a 25 per cent performance fee for the Qbasis hedge fund.
The minimum investment is €2,000 (£1,600), compared with $100,000 for the Qbasis hedge fund.
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Source: FT.com
Sovereign risks dominate assets returns in first half
August 3, 2010--Surging risk aversion and European sovereign concerns were the key drivers of currency returns in the first half of 2010, research by ETF Securities shows.
ETFS Long Yen Short Euro was the top performing currency ETC, rising 23 per cent in H1 2010 as the Euro sank on growing concerns about sovereign risk in Greece and other peripheral European countries.
With sovereign risk expected to remain a serious concern amidst rising uncertainty about the durability of the global recovery, these themes are likely to remain key drivers of returns during 2010 and 2011, ETF Securities says. Countries that implement credible debt control programmes will likely see currency outperformance.
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Source: ETF Express
Three new Royal Bank of Scotland ETNs launched on Xetra
RBS and Deutsche Börse expand offering in ETN segment
August 2, 2010--Three new exchange traded notes (ETNs) issued by The Royal Bank of Scotland have been tradable throughout Europe on Xetra since Monday. Exchange traded notes track the performance of underlying reference indices outside of the commodities sector.
ETN name: MSCI EFM Africa ex South Africa Daily Net TR USD Index ETN
Asset class: Equity index
ISIN: NL0009360833
Management fee: 1.35 percent
Benchmark: MSCI EFM Africa ex South Africa Daily Net TR USD Index
ETN name: MSCI BRIC ADR Top 50 Index ETN
Asset class: Equity index
ISIN: NL0009496314
Management fee: 0.64 percent
Benchmark: MSCI BRIC ADR Top 50 Index
ETN name: MSCI EM Latin America with Brazil ADR Index ETN
Asset class: Equity index
ISIN: NL0009496322
Management fee: 0.64 percent
Benchmark: MSCI EFM EM Latin America with Brazil ADR Index
The three new Royal Bank of Scotland ETNs enable investors to participate in the performance of equity indices from the MSCI Index family. The MSCI EFM Africa ex South Africa Daily Net TR USD Index tracks the performance of the currently 35 companies in the Africa ex South Africa frontier markets.
The MSCI BRIC ADR Top 50 Index comprises the following sub-indices: MSCI Brazil ADR Index, MSCI Russia ADR Index, MSCI India ADR Index and MSCI China Index. Investors have access to the 50 largest companies weighted by free-float market capitalization from Brazil, Russia, India and China.
The MSCI EM Latin America with Brazil ADR Index represents 85 percent of the market capitalization of Latin America. The index comprises companies from Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico and Peru.
The product offering of Deutsche Börse’s ETP segment currently comprises 174 exchange-listed commodities (ETCs) and 34 exchange traded notes (ETNs).
Source: Deutsche Börse
CESR announces next steps on European access to financial information disclosed by listed companies
August 2, 2010--CESR announces today a series of proposed measures for developing pan-European access to financial information disclosed by listed entities. The purpose of the various measures is to harmonise and enhance pan-European search facilities for financial information and to investigate the possible introduction of XBRL reporting.
As such, the first measure consists of a consultation paper on the development of pan-European access to financial information published by listed entities (CESR/10-719c). The consultation paper introduces CESR’s proposals for improving the search functions and interconnection between national storage facilities for financial information. Two options are presented in the consultation paper. The first consist of organising national information depositories that would be accessible through one European search engine while the second option would centralise all data in a European central database. The responses to the consultation paper will provide CESR with feedback for a report to be submitted to the European Commission in Q4 2010. Links to existing national storage mechanisms (called OAMs) are now available on CESR’s website under corporate reporting, either by share (through the MiFID database or via a list of links to OAMs themselves).
The second measure, builds on the call for evidence on The Use of a Standard Reporting Format for Financial Reporting of Issuers Having Securities Traded on Regulated Markets published in October 2009 (CESR 09-859). CESR announces its decision to move forward with an investigation of the possible use of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) for the financial reporting of listed issuers.
The Spanish Stock Exchange traded €98.31 billion in july, up 3% year on year
The number of equity trades to the end of July totalled 24 million, up 34% year on year
Trading in the ETF segment in the first seven months totalled 44,898 trades, up 66% from the same period in 2009
August 2, 2010--Equities
In July trading in Equities on the Spanish Stock market amounted to €98.31 bn, which represents a 3% rise year on year. The trading volume to the end of July was €626.24 bn, up 21.2% on the same period last year.
The number of trades in the first seven months totalled 24 million, up 34% year on year. In July the number of trades came in at 3.1 million, up 11% from the same period the previous year.
The trading volume in the ETF segment to the end of July was up 147% on the same month of 2009, at €4.67 bn. The trading volume in July was €286 million, down 23% from the same period a year earlier.
The number of trades in the ETF segment to the end of July came in at 44,898, up 66% from the same month in 2009. In July the number of trades reached 4,555, down 12% year on year.
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Source: BME
ECX Monthly Report
August 2, 2010--The ECX (European Climate Exchange) Monthly Report for July 2010 is now available.
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Source: European Climate Change
July Statistics Report From The NASDAQ OMX Nordic Exchanges
August 2, 2010--Share Trading in July
The value of average daily share trading amounted to EUR 2.0 billion, as compared to EUR 2.5 billion during the past 12-month period. The average number of trades per business day amounted to 258,796 as compared to 261,305 during the past 12-month period. The total market cap of listed companies at NASDAQ OMX Nordic Exchange amounted to EUR 703 billion, compared to EUR 542 billion in July 2009.
Derivatives Trading
The average daily trading volume in derivative products amounted to 455,749 contracts, as compared to 498,867 contracts during the past 12-month period. The average daily trading volume in share products was 247,079 contracts, as compared to 233,528 contracts during the past 12 month period. The average daily trading volume in index products was 156,852 contracts, compared to 167,945 contracts during the past 12-month period. Fixed-income derivatives traded 51,818 contracts, compared to 97,394 contracts during the past 12-month period.
Listings and Members
There were 2 new companies on First North during July. There were 2 new members during July.
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Source: Mondovisione
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