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BRIC countries have 'strong potential' for securities lending
July 1, 2011--At a conference held by the International Securities Lending Association (ISLA) in Lisbon, 35% of attendees said Brazil had the biggest potential growth for businesses among the BRIC countries – which include Brazil, Russia, India and China – while 31% said China also presented a large number of opportunities.
At a conference held by the International Securities Lending Association (ISLA) in Lisbon, 35% of attendees said Brazil had the biggest potential growth for businesses among the BRIC countries – which include Brazil, Russia, India and China – while 31% said China also presented a large number of opportunities.
The Options Industry Council Announces June Volume Grew 21 Percent
July 1, 2011-- The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 372,928,893 total options contracts changed hands in June, representing a 20.59 percent increase over June 2010 when 309,262,866 contracts were traded.
Additionally, year-to-date volume for June stood at 2,217,548,977 contracts compared to 2,000,877,118 contracts traded during the first six months of last year and representing a 10.83 percent increase. June's average daily volume for the month came in at 16,951,314 contracts, 20.59 percent more than the 14,057,403 contracts traded during June 2010. Year-to-date average daily volume was 17,740,392 contracts, up 9.94 percent over 16,136,106 contracts in June of last year.
Equity options volume experienced an increase of 20.06 percent with 342,530,588 contracts exchanged in June compared to 285,302,265 contracts for the same year ago period. Year-to-date equity options volume for June stood at 2,065,770,914 contracts compared to the same point last year when 1,843,012,741 contracts were traded, representing a 12.09 percent increase. Equity options volume on average each day in June was 15,569,572 contracts, up 20.06 percent compared to 12,968,285 contracts for the same month last year.
BATS Global Markets Reports Record June For Options, 11% U.S. Equities Market Share
July 1, 2011-BATS Global Markets (BATS), a global operator of
stock and options markets, today reported record BATS Options matched market share of 4.3% for the
month of June and U.S. Equities matched market share of 11.0%, equal to the same month last year.
The company’s BATS Europe division reported matched market share for pan-European equities trading of
5.6% compared to 5.3% a year ago.
BATS operates two stock exchanges in the U.S., the BATS BZX Exchange and BATS BYX Exchange;
BATS Options; and BATS Europe, an FSA-authorised multilateral trading facility in Europe. June 2011 highlights for each of these markets are outlined below.
IMF 2011 Financial Access Survey Data Now Available
July 1, 2011--The “Access to Finance” Project (the Project) aims at collecting annual geographic and demographic data on access to basic consumer financial services worldwide. This is done through the identification and development of appropriate high quality data that are comparable across countries and over time collected by means of periodic surveys.
The main envisaged users of these data are researchers and policy makers.
view the IMF 2011 Financial Access Survey Data
Health: spending continues to outpace economic growth in most OECD countries
June 30, 2011-- Health spending continues to rise faster than economic growth in most OECD countries, maintaining a trend observed since the 1970s. Health spending reached 9.5% of GDP on average in 2009, the most recent year for which figures are available, up from 8.8% in 2008, according to OECD Health Data 2011.
But health spending as a share of GDP is likely to stabilise or fall slightly in 2011. This is due to improving economic growth and lower health spending as governments seek to rein in budget deficits.
While governments must do more to get better value for money from healthcare spending, they must also continue pursuing their long-term goals of having more equitable, responsive and efficient health systems, according to the OECD.
The rise in the health spending share of GDP was particularly marked in countries hard hit by the global recession. In Ireland, the percentage of GDP devoted to health increased from 7.7% in 2007 to 9.5% in 2009. In the United Kingdom, it rose from 8.4% in 2007 to 9.8% in 2009.
view the OECD Health Data 2011
Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves (COFER)
June 30, 2011--COFER is an IMF database that keeps end-of-period quarterly data on the currency composition of official foreign exchange reserves. The currencies identified in COFER are:
U.S. dollar,
Euro,
Pound sterling,
Japanese yen,
Swiss francs, and
Other currencies.
ETF Licensing, Innovative Index Launches, Dow Anniversary Cap Memorable First Half of 2011 Dow Jones Indexes
June 30, 2011-- The late-June licensing of eight indexes from the Dow Jones Emerging Markets Sector Titans Indexes series capped an impressive first half of 2011 for Dow Jones Indexes, which also launched a host of innovative indexes and commemorated the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 115th anniversary.
Among the other first-half 2011 highlights for the global index provider included:
a collaboration with FXCM Inc. to launch the Dow Jones FXCM Dollar Index, which measures the value of the U.S. dollar against a basket of the world’s most liquid currencies;
the licensing, with SAM, of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Enlarged ex All/AE Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability Europe ex All/AE Index, to Blackrock for use with ETFs; and
the winning of three awards for its highly decorated Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes series:
Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes In June 2011: Islamic Finance Defies The Global Banking Industry’s Contraction
June 30, 2011--This Dow Jones Indexes commentary is a monthly analysis of the Islamic market indexes industry written by Gerard Al-Fil, a Dubai-based financial journalist.
Mr Al-Fil is a Middle Eastern correspondent for Dubai-based portal AME Info, German business weekly Euro am Sonntag, and the Swiss publications, Schweizer Bank and moneycab.com. Over the course of his career, Mr. Al-Fil has reported on business and finance from the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Turkey, Iran and China.
TMX/LSE Withdraw Application Related To Proposed Merger
June 30, 2011--On June 29, 2011, the TMX Group Inc. and London Stock Exchange Group plc withdrew their applications to the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) and the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) to amend the TSX-Venture Exchange's recognition orders in B.C. and Alberta.
A copy of the Withdrawal of Application (http://www.osc.gov.on.ca/documents/en/Proceedings-OTH/now_20110629_tmx-lse.pdf) is available on the BCSC and ASC websites.
The B.C. Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities within the province.
The ASC is the regulatory agency responsible for administering the province's securities laws. It is entrusted to foster a fair and efficient capital market in Alberta and to protect investors.
Gold hits six-week low on weak demand outlook
June 30, 2011--The price of gold slumped to a six-week low on Friday as the passage of austerity measures in Greece, the end of quantitative easing in the US and softening commodity prices dealt a triple blow to the precious metal.
The bullion had held up around $1,500 a troy ounce but on Friday slid as much as 1.4 per cent to a low of $1,478.01 after Greece took a decisive step away from default with a vote backing austerity measures.