Global ETF News Older than One Year
Minorities proposal sparks alarm in banks
January 12, 2010--When the Basel Committee on Banking Regulation brought out its plans to make the global financial system safer in December, many of the proposals were in line with what banks expected.
But a proposal to tighten the capital rules for subsidiaries that are partly owned by outside investors caused widespread alarm
The change would stop banks including the equity they hold in subsidiaries as minority owners in their core tier one capital ratio – which measures the cushion of capital banks must hold to offset the risks they take, measured by risk-weighted assets. Banks say the change could sharply reduce their capital at a time when they need to raise more to meet regulators’ demands and would make it unprofitable to expand overseas, particularly in emerging markets.
Source: FT.com
Banks braced for Basel battle
January 12, 2010--Banks are gearing up to fight a proposal by global regulators to sharply increase capital requirements for institutions that bring in outside investors to fund subsidiaries, saying it will cripple their ability to expand in emerging markets.
Bank executives fear the provision would create huge holes in the capital stocks of a wide range of UK, European and Japanese financial institutions, at a time when they are already under pressure to increase their regulatory capital.
Analysts described the proposal as one of the most “draconian” and “potentially devastating” parts of a package of measures put forward in December by the Basel committee, which sets global standards that are implemented by local regulators.
Source: FT.com
NASDAQ Announces End-Of-Month Open Short Interest Positions In NASDAQ Stocks As Of Settlement Date December 31, 2009
January 12, 2010--At the end of the settlement date of December 31, 2009, short interest in 2,423 NASDAQ Global Market(SM) securities totaled 6,197,177,687 shares compared with 6,257,533,001 shares in 2,422 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of December 15, 2009. The end-of-December short interest represents 3.32 days average daily NASDAQ Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 3.49 days for the prior reporting period.
Short interest in 465 securities on The NASDAQ Capital Market(SM) totaled 207,500,638 shares at the end of the settlement date of December 31, 2009 compared with 201,696,432 shares in 462 securities for the previous reporting period. This represents 1.54 days average daily volume, compared with the previous reporting period's figure of 2.18.
In summary, short interest in all 2,888 NASDAQ(R) securities totaled 6,404,678,325 shares at the December 31, 2009 settlement date, compared with 2,884 issues and 6,459,229,433 shares at the end of the previous reporting period. This is 3.20 days average daily volume, compared with an average of 3.42 days for the previous reporting period.
The open short interest positions reported for each NASDAQ security reflect the total number of shares sold short by all broker/dealers regardless of their exchange affiliations. A short sale is generally understood to mean the sale of a security that the seller does not own or any sale that is consummated by the delivery of a security borrowed by or for the account of the seller.
For more information on NASDAQ Short interest positions, including publication dates, visit http://quotes.nasdaq.com/asp/MasterDataEntry.asp?page=ShortInterest or http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/asp/short_interest.asp.
Source: NASDAQ OMX
DB Index Research -ETPs & ETFs - Market Review & 2010 Outlook
January 11, 2010--DB Index Research -- ETPs/ETFs 2009 Market Review and 2010 Outlook
Crossing the Trillion Dollar Mark
Highlights
With the arrival of the New Year we are very excited to be intiating
enhanced research in the Exchange-Traded Products (ETP) space. We now
have a new Strategist based in London and our team is dedicated to
developing an active dialogue with the market. In this first report,
we review the US and European ETP markets over the past year, we
highlight trends and express our views on what we consider to be
important in the space as well as make some observations about what we
believe will follow in the year ahead.
The year just passed marked a milestone for the two biggest global ETP markets: the US and European combined ETP assets crossed the trillion dollar mark at the end of 2009. With the recovery seen in equity markets in both regions and with 74% of ETPs housed in equity vehicles, it is no surprise that assets rose. What is much more important to recognize is that assets continued to rise well over (2009 ETP asset growth: 46.2%) and above that of equity market growth (MSCI World: 23.8%) indicating investors continuing to strongly embrace this market with $167.1 billion of net inflows.
Beyond the impressive asset growth, we have a number of key findings:
- Emergence of global ETP Providers which will be in a position to provide consistent service across a variety of asset classes globally.
- Strong tiering of both the US and European markets leading to a handful of providers controlling the majority of assets.
- With ETP asset profiles widening, a provider's ability to timely and efficiently create products will play the biggest role in being able to compete.
- We expect continued fusing of expertise across the financial services industry to create ETP products tracking more diverse benchmarks. With all major asset classes now covered by ETPs, we expect increased product creation in non equity and fixed income products.
- Equities and fixed income remain the dominant ETP asset class in terms of AUM in 2009, however, investors continue to show keen interest in commodities which will further elevate the third biggest asset class assets.
- We expect the ETP assets in the US and Europe to cross the $1.2 trillion mark in 2010 assuming flat markets, with a strong possibility of reaching $1.4 trillion if bullish equity markets continue.
- The growth rate of the European market will likely continue to outstrip that of the US market, though the US market will undoudebtly remain larger.
To request a copy of the report
Source: Source: Aram Flores and Shan Lan -DB Index Research
ETF Landscape: Industry Review - December 2009
January 11, 2010--The December 2009 edition of the monthly ETF Landscape Industry Review. This report is a review of the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) industry through the end of November 2009.
At the end of November 2009 the global ETF industry hit an all time high of US$982.28 Bn with 1,907 ETFs and 3,678 listings from 103 providers on 39 exchanges around the world.
Source: Source: ETF Research and Implementation Strategy, Blackrock
Pensions funds consider shift back into property
January 11, 2010--European and North American pension funds are planning to increase investments in real estate over the coming year and the majority of schemes are reviewing external managers, an asset allocation survey has suggested.
Findings of a study conducted in December by Bfinance indicated there is still a trend among the 63 schemes surveyed to move towards riskier assets, and 27% of those questioned said they are planning to increase their target allocations to property over the next six months.
The recent turmoil in investment markets and subsequent underperformance means at least 62% of the respondents have also either put their managers on a watchlist or have already reviewed the firms employed to look after an average 21% of their assets under management.
Source: IP&E
NYSE Euronext Global Index Group Announces 2009 Performance of Indices
NYSE Euronext Global Index Group Announces 2009 Performance of Indices
January 11, 2010--NYSE Euronext’s (NYSE Euronext: NYX) Global Index Group today announced the 2009 performance of its benchmark indices.
This report is a part of a regular series by NYSE Euronext’s Global Index Group and utilizes the exchange’s recently integrated systems and new business development initiatives.
Accomplishments 2009
In 2009, the NYSE Euronext’s Global Index Group added 25 new indices. These new indices included the NYSE Euronext Iberian Index, which covers the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal ).
Several new indices were also introduced that support trading strategies around the main proprietary indices, CAC 40 and AEX. In the spring, the equal-weighted indices came to the market, while later in the year dividend point indices (DI) were launched for the CAC 40 and AEX. In December, a futures contract based on the CAC DI was introduced and an AEX DI version is expected soon.
In the U.S. , 5 new indices were either released or in last stages of development: four NYSE Current Treasury Indices and the Junior Gold BUGS Index is expected shortly.
Source: Eurex
NYSE Euronext Announces Trading Volumes and Other Metrics for December 2009
January 8, 2010--NYSE Euronext (NYX) today announced trading volumes and other metrics for its global derivatives and cash equities exchanges for December 2009[1]. Trading volumes in December 2009 were mixed, with European Derivatives volumes increasing 40.8% and U.S. options trading volumes increasing 92.2% versus prior year. U.S. and European cash equities trading volumes, however, declined 30.5% and 9.1%, respectively, from prior year levels.
Highlights
NYSE Euronext European derivatives products average daily volume (“ADV”) in December 2009 of 4.0 million contracts increased 40.8% compared to December 2008, but decreased 6.8% from November 2009. Total European interest rate products ADV in December 2009 of 1.8 million contracts increased 51.8% compared to December 2008, but decreased 21.5% from November 2009. Total equity products ADV of 2.1 million contracts in December 2009 increased 33.1% compared to December 2008, and increased 10.6% from November 2009.
Source: NYSE Euronext
Independent firms will shape 2010 asset management M&A
Janaury 8, 2010--M&A in the global asset management industry in 2009 was dominated by mega-deals, with a record nine transactions announced involving firms with more than USD100bn in assets under management.
Yet several deals in the fourth quarter signal a new phase driven by a greater number of transactions primarily involving independent firms, according to the financial institutions group of Jefferies.
Source: ETF Express
EDHEC-Risk Institute Announces Rebranding of its Risk and Asset Management Research Centre
January 6, 2010--EDHEC-Risk Institute, the leading centre for asset and risk management research, announced today that the official name for the holding entity governing its entire range of activities would henceforth be ‘EDHEC-Risk Institute’.
Formerly called the ‘EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre’, EDHEC-Risk Institute was set up in 2001 to conduct world-class academic research and highlight its applications to the industry.
In keeping with this mission, the institute systematically seeks to validate the academic quality of its research through publications in leading scholarly journals, implements a multifaceted communications policy to inform investors and asset managers on state-of-the-art concepts and techniques, and develops business partnerships to launch innovative products.
Professor Noël Amenc, Director of EDHEC-Risk Institute, said “Over the past nine years, the brand name ‘EDHEC-Risk’ has become synonymous with state-of-the-art financial research applied to asset management. We felt that this widely-recognised brand name should be shared across the whole range of our activities that benefit from the involvement of the EDHEC-Risk research team, whether educational activities (the EDHEC-Risk Institute PhD in Finance, the EDHEC-Risk Institute Executive MSc in Risk and Investment Management and the joint CFA Institute/EDHEC-Risk Institute Advances in Asset Allocation Seminars); research publications and debates with the industry (EDHEC-Risk Institute Position Papers and Publications); conferences (the EDHEC-Risk Alternative Investment Days and the EDHEC-Risk Institutional Days); or products and services (EDHEC-Risk Indexes).”
Source: EDHEC-Risk Institute
