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Semi-Annual Changes to the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability Index
May 21, 2012--The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. and CRD Analytics announced today the results of the semi-annual re-ranking of the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability Index, which will become effective prior to market open on Monday, May 21, 2012.
The following two securities will be added to the Index: Bank of America Corporation and TELUS Corporation.
The NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability Index is an equally weighted equity index that serves as a benchmark for stocks of companies that are taking a leadership role in sustainability performance reporting and are traded on a major US stock exchange. The Index is made up of companies that have taken a leadership role in disclosing their carbon footprint, energy usage, water consumption, hazardous and non-hazardous waste, employee safety, workforce diversity, management composition and community investing.
Institutional Investors Spur Hedge Funds to Grow Operational Infrastructure and Increase Transparency, says AIMA/KPMG study
May 21, 2012--New global report from KPMG and AIMA covered 150 managers with US$550 billion in assets under management.
Almost 60 percent of global assets under management are now from institutional investors.
Nearly 90 percent of respondents reported increased due diligence since 2008.
The post-2008 influx of institutional money into hedge funds has resulted in a marked increase in the global industry’s operational sophistication and transparency to investors, according to a new report by KPMG International and the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global hedge fund association.
The report, entitled “The Evolution of an Industry”, is based on a survey and in-depth interviews of 150 hedge fund management firms globally with more than US$550 billion in combined assets under management. It found that hedge fund management firms have improved their operational infrastructure in areas like investor transparency and regulatory compliance as allocations from institutional investors have increased.
view the report-The evolution of an industry
Barclays to sell $6.1 billion BlackRock stake
May 21, 2012--British bank Barclays (BARC.L) is selling its near-20 percent stake in U.S. asset manager BlackRock (BLK.N), worth $6.1 billion, as tougher global regulations have cut the attraction of such holdings.
Barclays has held the stake for almost three years, a legacy of BlackRock's $15 billion purchase of Barclays Global Investors, but Basel III regulations mean banks have to hold more capital against minority stakes in asset managers and other firms, making it less profitable.
ETFS Precious Metals Weekly: Gold Price Rebounds Sharply as Investors Appear to See Sell-Off as Excessive
May 21, 2012--Gold price bounces following net speculative futures positioning dropping to its lowest level since December 2008. The gold price bounced sharply at the end of last week as investors appeared to view the recent sell-off as excessive.
With the gold price nearing a 10-month low, investors jumped in at the end of last week, pushing the gold price up 2% on Friday as the odds of further quantitative easing from the main reserve currency central banks rising, and a reconfiguration of the Euro a very real risk. Despite the rally, the gold price is likely continue to face near-term headwinds to strong gains until the Greece Euro issue is resolved one way or another. However, with futures positioning at multi-year lows. As detailed in the World Gold Council (WGC) report released last week, physical demand from central banks and China remained strong in 1Q 2012 and the removal of India’s gold excise tax may stimulate pent-up demand in India. While the gold price has suffered as Europe has teetered on the edge of, but not quite fallen into, the potential abyss of a disorderly Greek departure from the Euro, any indication Greece might actually go over the edge will likely reverse the usual gold price-EUR/USD correlation as extreme panic drives safe-haven flows into gold (and the US dollar) as occurred in late 2008. An alternative scenario that involves a convincing solution to the Greek crisis will also likely benefit the gold price as EUR/USD rallies and gold follows. Until one of these two scenarios becomes clear, however, the gold price is likely to trade in a range. Greece’s June 17 repeat general election will be an important event for gold. In the run-up to the election any large scale ECB intervention to stabilise Spanish and other peripheral European bond markets would also likely be Euro and gold price positive.
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TASE opens NASDAQ Trading-New York, May 17, 2012
May 20, 2012--Ten Israeli "biomed" companies, together with representatives of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) and NASDAQ, opened NASDAQ trading on May 17th.
The companies participated in a conference dedicated to introducing U.S. investors to Israeli life science industries.
ICAP plc agrees to acquire PLUS Stock Exchange plc
May 18, 2012--ICAP plc, the world's leading interdealer broker, is pleased to announce that it has agreed to acquire PLUS Stock Exchange plc ("PLUS"), the smaller company equity exchange for £1 in cash subject to PLUS Markets Group plc shareholder consent and FSA approvals.
PLUS is one of only five RIEs (Recognised Investment Exchange) in the UK. It provides listing and quoting services to around 140 companies and generates revenue of approximately £3 million a year. However, the business is presently loss making.
Lyxor AM to Merge its ETF and Indexing Activities
The new unit will be called "ETF & Indexing"
May 18, 2012--Lyxor AM has decided to merge its ETF and indexing asset management activities. Consequently, Juan San Pío, Head of ETF Institutional Sales for Iberia and Latin America, will now be in charge of indexing products, becoming Head of ETF & Indexing Institutional Sales for Iberia and Latin America, according to Funds People.
The new unit,"ETF & Indexing", is to be led directly by Alain Dubois, Chairman of Lyxor Asset Management. Simon Klein, in addition to his role as Head of ETF Europe, will be promoted to Global Head of Business Development, ETF & Indexing and will become a member of Lyxor’s Executive Committee. He will report to Alain Dubois and Christophe Baurand, Global Head of Business Development for Lyxor AM.
IMF Working Paper-Quantifying Structural Subsidy Values for Systemically Important Financial Institutions
May 17, 2012--Summary: Claimants to SIFIs receive transfers when governments are forced into bailouts. Ex ante, the bailout expectation lowers daily funding costs. This funding cost differential reflects both the structural level of the government support and the time-varying market valuation for such a support.
With large worldwide sample of banks, we estimate the structural subsidy values by exploiting expectations of state support embedded in credit ratings and by using long-run average value of rating bonus. It was already sizable, 60 basis points, as of the end-2007, before the crisis. It increased to 80 basis points by the end-2009.
view the Quantifying Structural Subsidy Values for Systemically Important Financial Institutions
IMF Working paper-The Effects of Government Spending under Limited Capital Mobility
May 17, 2012--Summary: This paper studies the effects of government spending under limited international capital mobility, as featured by most developing countries. While external financing of government debt mitigates the crowding-out effect, it generates real appreciation, which contracts traded output and lowers the fiscal multiplier in the short run.
The decline of the multiplier is larger when facing debt-elastic country risk premia. Also, government spending is more expansionary with more home bias in government purchases, more sectoral rigidities, and a less flexible exchange rate. Whether the twin-deficit hypothesis holds depends crucially on the extent to which government deficits are financed externally.
view the IMF working paper-The Effects of Government Spending under Limited Capital Mobility
World Bank Releases Little Green Data Book 2012
New marine indicators highlight decline in the world's oceans
May 17, 2012--The World Bank today released its annual compilation of environmental data for more than 200 countries, providing up-to-date information on agriculture, forests and biodiversity, energy and emissions, water and sanitation, environment and health and oceans.
The World Bank’s Vice President for Sustainable Development Rachel Kyte said the Little Green Data Book 2012 was an important addition to the toolkit for countries to measure, value and manage their natural capital.