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India May Grow 8.2% Next Year, Allowing Stimulus Exit
February 25, 2010-- India’s economic growth may surpass 8 percent in the coming financial year, Finance Ministry projections showed, allowing scope for a reduction in stimulus measures that would help the nation restrain its debt burden.
“The economy has posted a remarkable recovery from the global recession,” according to the annual Economic Survey prepared by officials advising Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, released in New Delhi today. “The recovery creates scope for a gradual rollback, in due course, of some of the measures undertaken over the last 15 to 18 months.”
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Source: Bloomberg
Sustainable investment opportunities in Asia (excl. Japan) massively underestimated - potential of up to USD 4,000 billion by 2015
February 24, 2010--A study just published by the Vontobel Group shows that investors are significantly underestimating Asia in terms of its sustainability. The Asian region (excl. Japan) offers a very high yield potential for sustainable investments, whereby the assets under management could increase from their current level of USD 20 billion to as much as USD 4,000 billion. Vontobel's sustainability experts are seeing a tremendous pace of change in social, environmental and corporate governance standards within the region. Investors are familiar with the corresponding risks but underestimate the potential, thanks to the major progress achieved in data availability, for identifying Asian companies with high standards of sustainability and for optimising their investments accordingly.
Falko Paetzold, author of the sustainability study: "With the information we have collated and evaluated we enable investors for the first time to reliably identify the factors in the success of sustainable investments in Asia and consequently to invest successfully in this huge growth market."
The latest Vontobel study entitled "Sustainable Investing in Asia - Uncovering Opportunities and Risks" for the very first time provides an in-depth examination of the true importance and development of a sustainable path of economic growth in Asia (excl. Japan) and comes to the following conclusions, amongst others:
Asia is faced with massive environmental problems and social challenges in a range of areas. By contrast to the West, however, it is not civil society which is demanding and driving forward a process of sustainable development, it is the governments themselves who are taking extremely decisive action in countering these acute problems with various broadly-based initiatives.
Asian companies are tackling the challenges in differing ways. In this context, the difference between progressive companies with comprehensive sustainability initiatives and those companies whose actions are of a more defensive nature is much greater than in Europe. Contrary to the assumption amongst many investors, we are seeing a rapid improvement in the situation regarding information on these topics.
Vontobel anticipates strong growth in the volumes of sustainable investments in Asia (excl. Japan) by 2015. The current USD 20 billion in sustainable investments represents just 0.4 percent of the global "sustainable" assets under management. An increase up to the current global average share of sustainable investments alone would mean such assets rising to USD 1.5 trillion in this region. A corresponding growth in the sustainable global assets under management could in fact see the assets increasing up to USD 4.0 trillion in 2015.
view the Sustainable Investing in Asia - Uncovering Opportunities and Risks report
Source: Vontobel
Thailand-SEC approves Thai ETFs on foreign ETFs
February 24, 2010--The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the guidelines for the launch of exchange-traded funds (ETF), to raise funds in Thailand for investment in foriegn ETFs.
The investible foreign ETFs are required to link to common products, demonstrate passive investment instrategies and be tradable on the exchanges which are members of the World Federation of Exchange.
Source: The Nation
WDX Organisation Announces Historic First As Oil-Based Product Is Priced In World Currency Unit (WOCU)
February 24, 2010--WDX Organisation Ltd., the company behind the
Wocu (World Currency Unit) is delighted to announce its agreement with Navitas
Resources, the specialist energy and climate commodity trade facilitator. In a world first, the new Navitas electronic exchange intends to price marine fuel (bunker fuel) in Wocu, alongside USD, from Q2 2010. The agreement follows Navitas joining WDX’s Early Participation Scheme earlier this year.
Importantly this will enable shipping companies to tender in either Wocu or Dollars for quotes at various ports around the world for marine fuel products and allow suppliers to place offers in the market 24/7. The marine fuel market is around 200 million metric
tonnes a year globally, valued at approximately $100bn per year. Because the Wocu is a
derivative of the exchange rates of the world’s top 20 economies (as measured by GDP)
its use is expected to significantly reduce currency fluctuations compared to pricing in
USD. It is anticipated that both consumer and producer will benefit greatly from the
smoothing effect of the Wocu, as the oil industry and consumers are exposed
significantly to USD currency volatility.
Navitas Resources, based in Singapore, is in the business of developing trading markets. Its NR-X electronic online platform allows suppliers and consumers to buy, sell and tender in various physical commodity markets over a safe, anonymous and secure network. It is the first physical trading platform to support the Wocu, differentiating it substantially from other trading platform exchanges.
Francesca Zerenghi, CEO of Navitas Resources, said, “We are taking a leading role in the development of non-US denominated commodity transactions. Both energy companies and developing countries with significant US dollar exposure will have the opportunity to reduce volatility in their earnings and balance sheet through the use of the Wocu. We became an Early Participation Scheme member of the WDX Organisation Ltd, along with leading foreign exchange companies and securities firms, as we strongly believe that developing markets should have access to a trading platform where they can control their risk much more effectively. Reducing exchange rate fluctuation risk enhances this considerably. ”
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Source: WOCU
HKEx Welcomes Government Proposals to Strengthen Hong Kong's Financial Services Industry
February 24, 2010--Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) issued the following statement in response to media enquiries about today's budget speech by Hong Kong's Financial Secretary.
HKEx welcomes the proposals in the Government budget for the April 2010-to-March 2011 fiscal year aimed at further strengthening the competitiveness of Hong Kong's financial services industry.
"The budget proposals related to financial services will help reduce trading costs of some of the products listed on our Exchange and help Hong Kong maintain its position as a leading international financial centre," said HKEx Chairman Ronald Arculli.
"Extending the waiver of stamp duty on the trading of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) with no Hong Kong stocks in their portfolios to include ETFs that track indices comprising not more than 40 per cent of Hong Kong stocks will encourage the further development and diversification of our ETF market," Mr Arculli said.
"Proposals announced today will provide new support for our city's bond market and fund management industry, and market liquidity in general," Mr Arculli added.
Source: Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx)
Hong Kong Will Extend ETF Stamp Duty Concession
February 24, 2010--Hong Kong will extend a stamp duty concession on exchange-traded funds as part of its effort to strengthen the competitiveness of the city’s financial industry, Financial Secretary John Tsang said.
Tsang proposed in his budget speech today that the concession be extended to cover ETFs that track indexes comprising no more than 40 percent of Hong Kong stocks, according to an e-mailed statement.
“I don’t really think this will make a huge difference, as people like ETFs in order to get in and out of the market quickly, rather than for their cost,” said Andrew Sullivan, a sales trader at Mainfirst Securities Hong Kong Ltd.
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Source: Business Week
SC to amend guidelines on unit trust funds
February 23, 2010--The Securities Commission (SC) plans to amend the guidelines on unit trust funds to allow greater flexibility in terms of offering investors choices.
Its chairman, Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar, said one of the amendments would involve offerings in multiple currencies.
“This will encourage unit trust funds to be distributed overseas and facilitate investment by foreign investors who may find it difficult to cope with vagaries of the exchange rate,” she said while officiating the launch of The Edge-Lipper-Starmine Awards 2010 here yesterday.
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Source: New Sabah Times
Hang Seng BeES — Chance to buy into China
February 22, 2010--Credited with being the first foreign ETF in the country, Hang Seng BeES is the latest offering from Benchmark Asset Management Company. An open-ended index scheme, the Hang Seng BeES aims to provide its investors with returns (before expenses) that closely correspond to the total returns of securities as represented by the Hang Seng Index.
The fund will track the index on a real-time basis and will be passively managed. That is, the AMC will not try to ‘beat' the market or seek temporary defensive positions when the market declines or appears over-valued.
Hang Seng exposure
The ETF will enable Indian investors to buy into China, the world's largest manufacturing economy. It will invest at least 90 per cent of its total assets in the stocks of its underlying index, in the same proportion as that in the index. The Hang Seng Index comprises 42 stocks, representing about 60 per cent of the total market capitalisation of the Hong Kong stock market.
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Source: Business Line
MCX becomes world’s 6th largest exchange on strength of Metal and Energy
Puts India on the world’s metal and energy map as a “Price Setter” from a “Price taker”
To celebrate 2010 as the ‘Year of Metal and Energy’ and redesigns its logo.
Only commodity exchange certified with ISO 9001:2000 ( quality management), ISO 27001:2005 (information security management systems) & ISO 14001:2004 (environment management systems)
February 22, 2010 --
MCX, India’s No. 1 commodity exchange, has become the 6th largest and amongst the fastest growing commodity futures exchange in the world in terms of the number of contracts traded during the period January to December 2009.
This is based on the data compiled from respective exchange websites (refer to Table 1).
With a vision to be amongst the top commodity futures exchange in the world, MCX will celebrate 2010 as a ‘Year of Metal and Energy’. The logo has been re-designed to reflect the special status given to metal and energy
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Source: MCX
DB Index Research -- Weekly ETF Reports -- Asia - Pacific
February 17, 2010--Highlights
Market Overview
There are 203 equity based ETFs in the Asia Pacific region with 268 listings across 12 countries and 15 exchanges. Japan has the largest market share by AUM accounting for 39.79% of the whole market, whilst China has the largest market share by turnover with 42.83%.
There was one new listing in the last week. MAPS Investment Management Co listed one new ETF in Korea Stock Exchange.
Turnover
Monthly average daily turnover declined 19.9% in the last week. Turnover for the previous week was USD 876m. The largest ETF by turnover was the China 50 ETF issued by China Asset Management with USD 224m accounting for 25.5% of total turnover.
Assets Under Management
AUM rose 2.4% in the previous week. AUM as of Feb 15th were USD 59.9bn. The largest ETF by AUM is the TOPIX ETF managed by Nomura Asset Management with AUM of USD 6.1bn.
To request a copy of the report
Source: Aram Flores and Shan Lan -DB Index Research
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