Global ETF News Older than One Year
IMF Working paper-Country Stress Events: Does Governance Matter?
May 9, 2012--Summary: This paper analyzes the linkages between governance quality and country stress events. It focuses on two types of events: fiscal and political stress events, for which two innovative stress indicators are introduced.
The results suggest that weaker governance quality is associated with a higher incidence of both fiscal and political stress events. In particular, internal accountability, which measures the responsiveness of governments to improving the quality of the bureaucracy, public service provision, and respect for the institutional framework in place, is positively associated with fiscal stress events. However, external accountability, which captures government accountability before the public in general, through elections and the democratic process, seems to be more important for political stress events. These results hold when using balanced country samples where region, oil-exporter status, income level, and time are taken into account.
view the IMF working paper-Country Stress Events: Does Governance Matter?
Source: IMF
Federal Reserve grants first approval for Chinese bank to purchase US bank
May 9, 2012--The Federal Reserve has for the first time given approval for a large Chinese bank to purchase a U.S. bank. It also gave approval to two other large Chinese banks to expand their operations in the United States.
The Fed board announced Wednesday it was approving the application of the Industrial and Commerce Bank of China Limited, China’s largest bank, and two other Chinese firms to purchase The Bank of East Asia U.S.A., located in New York City.
Source: Washington Post
Investors take issue with ETF loan fees
May 9, 2012--Operators of exchange traded funds are making increasing sums of money by lending securities to short-sellers in return for cash or collateral as the funds surge in popularity.
Concern is growing among investors at the differences in how much of that revenue is returned to investors and how much is retained by operators, such as BlackRock and Vanguard.
Source: FT.com
Investors Watching Last week's Elections in Eurozone
May 9, 2012--The official PMI rose to the highest since March 2011.
Hong Kong and China markets rose on favorable policy and economic data.
The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges will lower the trading fees of A-share equities by 25%, effective from June 1, given that the exchanges are now sizable enough in terms of number of listed companies and trading volumes, to make up for lower trading fees in order to lessen investors’ costs and help further develop the market.
India
4Q and FY12 earnings reporting season will drive the stock market.
The Indian equity market trended lower last week, as weaker currency spurred concerns around the government’s difficulty in controlling inflation and curbing the fiscal deficit. A weak rupee lifted the cost of imported oil and other raw materials, potentially causing inflation to go higher and reducing the central bank’s scope to cut rates. India imports about 80 percent of its oil needs.
Brazil
Government took a major step to lower interest rate further.
Brazilian equities rose in local currency, falling in USD in the week ending May 3rd, as a result of significant currency depreciation. The Brazilian Real fell a further ~1% against the dollar as a result of a material fall in future interest rate expectations, and continued government intervention in currency markets.
Russia
Uncertainty over new government’s policies shakes the market.
The Russian market was closed on Monday for Bridge Day and Tuesday for Labour Day.
From a global perspective, near term focus is on last week’s elections within the Eurozone, with voters in both France and Greece going to the ballot box. Investors are concerned about the financial stability as the socialist candidate François Hollande came to power in France.
Source: Mirae Asset Management
World Bank Urges Governments to Think Green for Inclusive Growth
South Korea Pledges $40 million to Promote Green Growth for All
May 9, 2012--The World Bank today released a report urging governments to think green when pursing growth policies, which can be inclusive, efficient, affordable and above all necessary to sustain economic expansion in years ahead.
Launched at the Global Green Growth Summit in Seoul, Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathway to Sustainable Development, lays out an analytical framework that factors atmospheric, land and marine system limitations into plans for economic growth needed to further reduce poverty. The report debunks the myth that a green growth approach is a luxury most countries cannot afford – pointing instead to political barriers, entrenched behaviors and a lack of appropriate financing instruments as the chief obstacles.
view World Bank report- Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathway to Sustainable Development
Source: World Bank
MSCI May Index Review Announcement Scheduled for May 15, 2012
May 8, 2012--MSCI Inc., a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, including indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics and corporate governance services, will announce the results of the May 2012 Semi-Annual Index Review for the MSCI Equity Indices-including the MSCI Global Standard, MSCI Global Small Cap and MSCI Micro Cap Indices, as well as the MSCI Global Value and Growth
Indices, the MSCI Frontier Markets and MSCI Frontier Markets Small Cap Indices, the MSCI Global Islamic and MSCI Global Islamic Small Cap Indices, the MSCI Pan-Euro and MSCI Euro Indices, the MSCI US Equity Indices, the MSCI US REIT Index, as well as the MSCI China A Indices. All changes will be implemented as of the close of May 31, 2012.
Source: MSCI
Thomson Reuters Global Equities Monthly Market Share Data Reports-April 2012 Activity
May 8, 2012--Trading is fragmenting between exchanges and competing venues. But by how much and which venues? Find out in the summarised monthly reports.
Source: Thomson Reuters
FTSE Licences UBS AG With New Currency Solution-FTSE WPU
May 8, 2012--May 8, 2012--FTSE Group ("FTSE"), the award winning global index provider grants UBS AG the first licence for the recently launched currency solution, FTSE WPU (World Parity Unit).
The swift adoption of FTSE WPU will allow UBS to offer a range of investment and hedging products linked to FTSE WPU, to its global client base. The licensing highlights investor appetite for new currency-risk management tools, as currency fluctuations continue to play a significant risk in international investment.
Launched earlier this year, FTSE WPU is an innovative addition to the growing range of FTSE’s non-equity indices, which includes a variety of currency and commodity indices. FTSE WPU represents a single ‘currency unit’ comprised of a liquid basket of the seven most traded developed market currencies, the four BRIC currencies and storable commodities; gold and oil.
Source: FTSE
NYSE Euronext Announces Trading Volumes for April 2012
Global Derivatives ADV in April Down 7% Year-over-Year; Up 9% from 1Q12 Levels
#1 in U.S. Equity Options in April; Record Monthly Market Share for NYSE Amex Options
April European Cash ADV Up 23% and U.S. Cash ADV Down 13% Year-over-Year
May 8, 2012--NYSE Euronext (NYX) today announced trading volumes for its global derivatives and cash equities exchanges for April 20121.
Trading volumes were mixed both year-over-year and month-over-month across most venues, but reflected some strengthening relative to weak first quarter 2012 levels. Global derivatives average daily volume (“ADV”) of 8.2 million contracts in April 2012 decreased 6.9% versus the prior year, but increased 1.4% from March 2012 and increased 9.0% from first quarter 2012 levels. European cash trading ADV in April increased 22.8% versus the prior year, increased 14.8% from March 2012 levels and increased 17.8% from first quarter 2012 levels.
Source: NYSE Euronext
MIK White Paper On Portfolio Management And Data - Using Every Bit To Byte: Leveraging Data To Generate Alpha
May 7, 2012--Today MIK issued a white paper on portfolio management and data.
Introduction
Regardless of economic, competitive, regulatory, or market conditions, traditional asset and hedge fund managers are now, and always have been, faced with one primary mission: generating alpha.
Even when firms pursue similar investment strategies, satisfying the multiple demands of investors and giving sustained ROI is the goal.
Historically, successful investment strategies have relied on information asymmetry and information advantage. And frequently portfolio managers have garnered as much information as possible in designing both long-term strategy in the investment thesis and short-term implementation in trading.
Source: Mondovisione
