Global ETF News Older than One Year
Environment: The Water Challenge: sharing a precious commodity
March 7, 2012--Water management needs urgent reform if the world is to head off serious deterioration in the quality and quantity of water available.
At the release of the OECD’s Meeting the Water Reform Challenge, OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría warned that ,“Without major policy changes, we risk high costs to economic growth, human health, and the environment. But with sustainable financing, effective governance and coherent policies,governments can harness water’s potential. Economic instruments like tariffs, taxes and transfers – the 3Ts – are powerful tools to ensure an efficient use of water."
view the ENVIRONMENTAL OUTLOOK TO 2050: The consequences of Inaction Key Findings on Water
Source: OECD
Thomson Reuters Global Equities Monthly Market Share Data Reports-February 2011
March 6, 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
ETFS Precious Metals Weekly:Gold ETF holdings hit all time high as gold price has worst day in 2 years
March 5, 2012--Gold and other precious metals ETF holdings surge on back of price declines. The gold price and other precious metals prices corrected sharply last week as stretched 'speculative' futures
investors used Bernanke's indication that another round of quantitative easing from the US central bank may not be imminent as an excuse to take profits.
ETF investors appeared to view the price drop as a buying opportunity with a surge of gold and other precious metal ETF buying. Gold ETF holdings hit an all time high last week, rising by around 267,000 ounces to over 77.3mn ounces, $132bn at the current gold price. Continued exceptionally accomodative monetary policy globally, large and still rising sovereign debt burdens and the continued high vulnerability of the global recovery to multiple potential external shocks are expected to keep a firm underpinning to investor and central demand for gold in the near and medium term.
Platinum and Palladium ETFs see growing demand as rising US auto sales and strong China demand keep price expectations high. Implats platinum mine labour issues are now being resolved and production is expected to start coming back onstream this week. The strike cost 120,000oz in lost PGM production.
The apparent resolution of the labor issue will likely remove platinum’s near-term supply-risk price premium. Rebounding US auto sales and continued continued growth from China, however, appear to be compensating keeping prices well supported. Both platinum and palladium have seen ETF investor demand pick-up strongly this year (see charts on page 3) and futures postioning has also run-up quite sharply. The jump in speculative longs in the futures market is something that needs to monitored closely, as it indicates that prices could be susceptible to a short-term correction if macro news were to turn negative.
However, with auto demand still strong and supply issues still a key risk, barring a global relapse into recession, any correction is likely to be relatively short-lived.
visit www.etfsecurities.com for more info
Source: ETF Securities
NASDAQ OMX and Axioma Launch New Equity-Commodity Index Family
March 5, 2012--The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) and Axioma, Inc. announced today a new family of indexes that use equities to provide exposure to the spot prices of commodities.
"These indexes deliver exposure to commodity prices by using equities whose share prices track prices for gold, oil or a basket of agriculture products," said John Jacobs, Executive Vice President, NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group.
The NASDAQ Axioma indexes offer an efficient way for portfolio managers to better match their returns with those of the overall oil, gold and agricultural markets. The indexes are rebalanced monthly and holdings information is available every business day.
"This is a valuable new tool for portfolio managers and other market participants who track commodities, particularly in this environment of increasingly volatile and complex markets," added Jacobs.
Ian Webster, Axioma's Managing Director EMEA, said, "The NASDAQ Axioma indexes are unique in terms of content, methodology, pricing and ease of access. By using Axioma's portfolio construction and analytical tools to develop these indexes, we've created a product that allows easy access to commodity exposure—access that is typically much more difficult to obtain."
The NASDAQ Axioma Equity-Commodity Index Series consists of three price and total return indexes—the NASDAQ Axioma Equity-Commodity Oil Index, the NASDAQ Axioma Equity-Commodity Gold Index and the NASDAQ Axioma Equity-Commodity Agriculture Index.
Source: NASDAQ OMX
OTC derivatives traders aim to capitalize on arbitrage
March 5, 2012--Regulators around the world are working to implement rules to govern the over-the-counter derivatives market. Many of the rules, such as requiring derivatives trades to be processed through central counterparties, are similar,
but timelines differ, prompting some traders to take advantage of the regulatory arbitrage.
Source: efinancial news
IMF Working paper-Exchange-Rate Dark Matter
March 2, 2012--Summary: Dark matter accounts for 83 percent of the matter in the universe and plays a central role in cosmology modeling. This paper argues that an analogous form of dark matter plays a similarly important role in international macroeconomics.
Exchange-rate dark matter is invisible, but its existence can be inferred from observations on real exchange rates and interest rates. I first show that dark matter is the dominant driver of short- and medium-term changes in real exchange rates for the G-7 countries; accounting for more than 90 percent of the variance at the five-year horizon. I then develop a model in which risk shocks account for dark matter's role as a driver of exchange-rate dynamics and other macro variables.
view IMF working paper-Exchange-Rate Dark Matter
Source: IMF
Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index Closed Up 4.16% In February
Index Measures Performance Of 100 Of World's Leading Shari'ah-Compliant Stocks-Dow Jones Islamic Market Asia/Pacific Titans 25 Index, Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Titans 25 Index End February In Positive Territory - Dow Jones Islamic Market U.S. Titans 50 Index Gained 4.23%
March 2, 2012--The Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index finished February up 4.16%, according to data compiled by Dow Jones Indexes. The index measures the performance of 100 of the world's leading Shari'ah-compliant stocks.
The Dow Jones Global Titans 50 Index, which measures the world’s 50 largest companies, posted a February gain of 4.98%.
Regionally, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Asia/Pacific Titans 25 Index, which measures the performance of 25 of the leading Shari’ah-compliant stocks in the Asia/Pacific region, increased 4.52% in February; the Dow Jones Asian Titans 50 Index advanced 5.08%.
In Europe, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Titans 25 Index, which measures the performance of the 25 the leading Shari’ah-compliant stocks in Europe, rose 3.76% in February; the Dow Jones Europe Titans 80 Index, which measures the performance of 80 blue-chip stocks traded in the developed markets of Europe, gained 5.34%.
Source: Mondovisione
Exchange Traded Derivatives Trading Volumes Increase 11% in 2011
March 2, 2012--Exchange Traded Derivatives Trading Volumes Increase 11% in 2011
March 1, 2012-Exchange Traded Derivatives (ETD) worldwide increased in 2011, according to statistics compiled by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE).
The WFE, which annually conducts a survey on derivative markets, found that in 2011, more than 24 billion derivative contracts (11.9 billion futures and 12.9 billion options) were traded on exchanges worldwide - an increase from the 22 billion traded in 2010. Between 2006 and 2011, the number of traded derivative contracts has more than doubled. While the growth rate (+11%) remains significantly high, it is lower than the one observed in 2010 (+25%). The full WFE report on derivatives markets will be available following the annual IOMA conference held this year in London from 15 to 17 April 2012.
Source: WFE
Gold Holdings in ETPs Overtake Italy, France Reserves, RBS Says
March 2, 2012--Gold holdings in exchange-traded products backed by the metal have topped reserves held by Italy and France, according to the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.
Assets rose 32 metric tons to a record 2,469 metric tons last month, Nick Moore the head of commodity research at RBS in London, said in a report dated today. The U.S. has the biggest reserves, followed by Germany and the International Monetary Fund. As of Sept. 30, Italy’s holdings were 2,451.84 tons, and France had 2,435.41 tons, World Gold Council data showed.
The RBS total for ETPs includes holdings in UBS Index Solutions ETF and the Royal Canadian Mint’s gold-backed securities. Assets excluding those funds were a record 2,404.17 tons as of yesterday, still trailing Italy and France, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Source: Bloomberg
IMF Working paper-Operative Principles of Islamic Derivatives - Towards a Coherent Theory
March 1, 2012--Summary: Derivatives are few and far between in countries where the compatibility of financial transactions with Islamic law requires the development of shari'ah-compliant structures.
Islamic finance is governed by the shari’ah, which bans speculation and gambling, and stipulates that income must be derived as profits from the shared generation of goods and services between counterparties rather than interest or a guaranteed return. The paper explains the fundamental legal principles underpinning Islamic finance with a view towards developing a cohesive theory of derivatives subject to shari’ahprinciples. After critically reviewing accepted contracts and the scholastic debate surrounding existing financial innovation in this area, the paper offers an axiomatic perspective on a principle-based permissibility of derivatives under Islamic law.
view the IMF Working paper-Operative Principles of Islamic Derivatives - Towards a Coherent Theory
Source:IMF
