Global ETF News Older than One Year
October 2009 “Islamic Market’s Measure” – Preliminary Report - Monthly Report On The Performance Of The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes
October 27, 2009--Based on the close of trading on October 26, the global Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index, which measures the performance of 100 of the leading Shari’ah compliant stocks globally, gained 2.17% month-to-date, closing at 2025.76. In comparison, the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 Index, which measures the 50 biggest companies worldwide, posted a gain of 1.96%, closing at 168.03.
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, decreased -0.42%, closing at 1795.29. The Dow Jones Asian Titans 50 Index, in comparison, posted a gain of 2.15%, closing at 134.57.
Measuring Europe, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Titans 25 Index, which measures the performance of the 25 of the leading Shari’ah compliant stocks in Europe, closed at 2076.65, a gain of 3.77%, while the pan-European blue chip Dow Jones STOXX 50 Index gained 1.87%, closing at 2728.85.
Measuring the performance of 50 of the largest Shari’ah compliant U.S. stocks, the Dow Jones Islamic Market U.S. Titans 50 Index increased, closing at 2036.15. It represents a gain of 1.99%. The U.S. blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 1.60%, closing at 9867.96.
Source: Mondovisione
Dow Jones Indexes Launches Dow Jones Islamic Market Greater China Index
October 26, 2009--Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today launched the Dow Jones Islamic Market (DJIM) Greater China Index. The index measures the performance of companies in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan that have passed screens for Shari’ah compliance.
The Dow Jones Islamic Market Greater China Index is designed to serve as underlying for financial products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or as a benchmark for mutual funds. The index is licensed to Prudential Fund Management Berhad, the regional Islamic hub for the global Prudential network and one of the leading fund management companies in Malaysia, to be used as the benchmark for Prudential Dinasti Equity Fund.
“Expanding the Dow Jones Islamic Market index series to the Greater China region enables market participants to track the performance of leading Shari’ah compliant companies in one of the most dynamically evolving regions worldwide,” said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. “While China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are markets in different developmental stages with different economic characteristics, they share a common, robust business culture. That along with expectations for long-term growth and market demand were important factors in our introduction of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Greater China Index.”
Mark Toh, regional head of Islamic Fund Management, Prudential Corporation Asia, and chairman and acting chief executive officer of Prudential Fund Management Berhad said, “When we first realized there was a gap in the current marketplace where no index could provide us with a fitting measure of Shari’ah compliant equities in the Greater China region, we approached Dow Jones Indexes to create one because we recognize Dow Jones Indexes as one of the global leaders in indexes. We have worked with them before, and we trust their expertise.”
The Dow Jones Islamic Market Greater China Index measures the stock performance of Shari’ah compliant companies with primary operations in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are traded at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Taiwan Stock Exchange as well as at U.S. exchanges. To determine their eligibility for the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes, stocks are screened based on their industry type and their financial ratios. Excluded are companies engaged in the following lines of business: alcohol, tobacco, pork-related products, financial services, defense/weapons and entertainment. Also excluded are companies for which the following financial ratios are 33% or more: debt divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization; cash plus interest-bearing securities divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization; and accounts receivables divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization.
The U.S. dollar denominated Dow Jones Islamic Market Greater China Index is free-float market capitalization weighted. The total weight of all Taiwanese companies is capped at 30% of the index and each component’s weight is capped at 10% of the index. The index composition is reviewed quarterly in March, June, September and December. The index is also reviewed on an ongoing basis to account for corporate actions such as mergers, de-listings or bankruptcies.
Year-to-date, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Greater China Index is up 59.49% through October 22, 20091.
The Dow Jones Islamic Market Greater China Index comprises 290 components as of October 22, 2009. The top five components of the index are China Mobile Ltd. (Telecommunications, China), China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (Telecommunications, China), CNOOC Ltd. (Oil & Gas, China), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. (Industrial Goods & Services, Taiwan), and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Technology, Taiwan) as of October 22, 2009
The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes were introduced in 1999 as the first indexes intended to measure the global universe of investable equities that pass screens for Shari’ah compliance. With more than 100 indexes, the series is the most comprehensive family of Islamic market measures and includes regional, country, and industry indexes, all of which are subsets of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index. An independent Shari’ah Supervisory Board counsels Dow Jones Indexes on matters related to the compliance of index-eligible companies.
There are currently more than 150 licensees with more than US$7 billion in assets benchmarked to the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes
Source: Dow Jones Indexes
NASDAQ Announces Mid-month Open Short Interest Positions In NASDAQ Stocks As Of Settlement Date October 15, 2009
October 26, 2009--At the end of the settlement date of October 15, 2009, short interest in 2,432 NASDAQ Global Market(SM) securities totaled 6,196,860,577 shares compared with 6,171,639,447 shares in 2,449 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of September 30, 2009. The mid-October short interest represents 2.70 days average daily NASDAQ Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 2.54 days for the prior reporting period.
Short interest in 454 securities on The NASDAQ Capital Market(SM) totaled 172,054,929 shares at the end of the settlement date of October 15, 2009 compared with 165,957,841 shares in 461 securities for the previous reporting period. This represents 1.65 days average daily volume, compared with the previous reporting period's figure of 1.18.
In summary, short interest in all 2,886 NASDAQ(R) securities totaled 6,368,915,506 shares at the October 15, 2009 settlement date, compared with 2,910 issues and 6,337,597,288 shares at the end of the previous reporting period. This is 2.65 days average daily volume, compared with an average of 2.46 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
Dollar plummets to new 14-month lows vs euro
October 26, 2009-The dollar hit a fresh 14-month low against the euro as a regional Chinese central bank researcher argued for diversification of the country’s reserves away from the greenback. A strong economic report from South Korea sparked an equities rally and dulled the buck’s safe-haven luster.
The euro touched a 14-month high of $1.5061 in overnight trading before falling to $1.5023 early in New York Monday. Late on Friday in New York, the euro was at $1.5002. Meanwhile, the dollar dipped to 91.89 Japanese yen from 92.10 yen, and the British pound rose to $1.6327 from $1.6311.
Politicians and bank officials from big exporters, including China, that hold huge amounts of US Treasuries as reserves have expressed unease with this situation as the value of their dollar holdings falters.
Source: Todays Zaman
NASDAQ Portfolio Manager "QFolio App" Now Available From App Store
October 26, 2009--The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
(Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced it has introduced a new stock market
application called NASDAQ Portfolio Manager (QFolio) now available from
the Apple App Store. With the NASDAQ Portfolio Manager, investors can
use their iPhone or iPod touch to build a quick watch list or a
detailed portfolio of U.S. stocks to track price performance in real
time, access pre-market and after-hour quotes and view dynamic charts.
The NASDAQ Portfolio Manager also provides access to StockTwits -- a rapidly growing community for private investors.
A video accompanying this release is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=176455
"Investing and watching the markets have gone mobile and there is a significant demand from iPhone and iPod touch users for real-time market tools and information," said Anna Ewing, Chief Information Officer of NASDAQ OMX. "At NASDAQ OMX we believe in market transparency and making real time prices available to everyone so we developed the NASDAQ Portfolio Manager as a way for investors to access and work with the most critical information they seek."
The NASDAQ Portfolio Manager is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
Source: NASDAQ OMX
NASDAQ OMX Announces Third Quarter 2009 New Listings Statistics
October 23, 2009--The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
(Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced that The NASDAQ Stock Market(R) captured
a total of 33 new listings in the third quarter, highlighted by 12 IPOs
including Avago Technologies (Nasdaq:AVGO), a leading designer,
developer and global supplier of analog semiconductor devices, and
lithium-ion battery producer A123 Systems (Nasdaq:AONE).
NASDAQ attracted 7 listings from the NYSE Group in the third quarter with a total market capitalization of $27.6 billion. NASDAQ welcomed the transfers of Mattel (Nasdaq:MAT), the worldwide leader in toy design and manufacture, R.R. Donnelley & Sons (Nasdaq:RRD), a global provider of integrated communications, and TriMas Corporation (Nasdaq:TRS), provider of engineered and applied products. Transfers from NYSE Amex included Iridium Communications (Nasdaq:IRDM), Zion Oil & Gas (Nasdaq:ZN), Reading International (Nasdaq:RDI) and Prospect Medical Holdings (Nasdaq:PZZ).
NASDAQ continues to draw new listings from the NYSE Group. On October 29, NASDAQ welcomes Vodafone Group PLC (Nasdaq:VOD), an international mobile communications group with a capitalization of $13.2 billion. BMC Software (Nasdaq:BMC), a management solutions provider with a $7.0 billion market capitalization, joins NASDAQ on October 26.
The new listings are comprised of the following categories:
3rd Qtr 2009
------------
Total New Listings 33
NYSE Group Switches 7
Initial Public Offerings 12
Upgrades from Over-the-Counter 9
ETFs, Structured Products & Other Listings 5
NASDAQ welcomed 10 companies from Greater China and currently lists 113 companies headquartered in Greater China, more than any other U.S. exchange. Third quarter listings from Greater China included the following:
Symbol Company Name ------ ------------ CDCS CDC Software Corp. CAGC China Agritech Inc. CRTP China Rita Power Corp. DEER Deer Consumer Products Inc. GAME Shanda Games Ltd. LIWA Lihua International Inc. RCON Recon Technology Ltd. RINO RINO International Corp. TRIT Tri-Tech Holdings Inc. YONG Yongye International Inc.
Other notable listings included the spin-offs of Alitsource Portfolio Solutions (Nasdaq:ASPS), a provider of real estate mortgage portfolio management products, from Ocwen Financial (NYSE:OCN) and off-shore driller Seahawk Drilling (Nasdaq:HAWK) from Pride International (NYSE:PDE).
Statistics are sourced from internal NASDAQ information. For more information about these and other NASDAQ market performance statistics, visit http://www.nasdaqomx.com/listingcenter/usmarket/.
Source: NASDAQ OMX
Weakening dollar and global recovery have increased demand for gold
The World Gold Council's latest Gold Investment Digest, which covers activity to the end of Q3, noted gold demand rising on continuing dollar weakness and signs of a stronger global economy.
October 23, 2009--The combination of a stronger global economy, an unchanged policy stance by the major central banks, and a continuing dollar weakness increased demand for gold as a store of value in Q3. The gold price ended the third quarter at US$995.75/oz on the London PM fix, having surpassed the symbolic US$1000/oz level two weeks before the close of the quarter, according to World Gold Council's latest Gold Investment Digest.
Gold exchange traded funds continued to grow in popularity over the quarter, reaching another record in tonnage terms. The total volume of gold purchased via the major exchange traded funds increased by 38.5 tonnes in the third quarter, taking total holdings to a record 1732.5 tonnes, the equivalent of US$55.5 billion.
While preliminary reports on third quarter trends in India suggest jewelry demand remained weak, the upcoming wedding and festival season indicated signs of seasonal improvement. Reports from China continued to be upbeat, while consumers in the US market still curbed discretionary purchases as a result of the economic downturn.
Source: Mineweb.com
NASDAQ OMX Futures Exchange Announces Partnership With IKON Global Markets
October 22, 2009-The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
(Nasdaq:NDAQ) announced today that NASDAQ OMX Futures Exchange (NFX),
the exchange's U.S. based futures market, has partnered with IKON
Global Markets, a leading global Futures Commission Merchant. IKON
became the first futures broker to offer client access to NFX's World
Currency Futures products (WCF), effective immediately. NFX's WCF
products include: the Australian dollar (AD9), British pound (BP9),
Canadian dollar (CA9), Colombian Peso (CP9), Euro dollar (EU9),
Japanese Yen (JY9), and the Swiss franc (SF9).
As a result of this partnership, customers will be able to utilize the IKON trading application to see live NFX market prices and enter buy/sell orders. NFX offers trading on seven currencies, all of which are retail-sized (approximate notional value is $10,000) and are cash settled in U.S. dollars. WCFs are an exact hedge for World Currency Options (securities options) which trade on NASDAQ OMX PHLX.
"NFX's product development efforts in Dec. 2008 focused mainly on listing new interest-rate swap futures through our partnership with IDCG and since then we have focused on furthering our strategy of leveraging our superior NASDAQ OMX trading technology while bringing new products to market on an efficient futures trading platform," commented Ben Craig, President of NASDAQ OMX Futures Exchange. "Today's announcement with IKON further strengthens our offering of retail FX products in a fully electronic environment. We are delighted to kick-off this collaboration with a global player in the futures industry like IKON," he added.
Diwakar Jagannath, CEO of IKON Global Markets, said, "NASDAQ OMX Futures Exchange has successfully developed and operated the World Currency Options platform with great speed and efficiency and we look forward to collaborating in their success with the World Currency Futures product. We enjoy working with the NFX team to add market depth, liquidity and our capabilities to clients and look forward to our joint efforts to develop new products and bring new participants to the exchange," he added.
NFX is engaged with IKON in collaborative business efforts to deliver broader trading opportunities to the global futures trading community. The NFX, formerly known as the Philadelphia Board of Trade, is a designated contract market under CFTC jurisdiction. It currently lists 10 futures products; including interest rate swap futures, currency futures and sector index futures for trading. Most recently, it began trading Columbian Peso futures.
NASDAQ OMX has a significant presence within the derivatives space globally including the NASDAQ OMX Futures Exchange, Nord Pool ASA, NASDAQ OMX Commodities International Derivatives Clearing Group, an independently operated majority owned NASDAQ OMX company, and its two options markets, The NASDAQ Options Market and NASDAQ OMX PHLX. NASDAQ OMX also has a 20% equity ownership stake in Agora-X.
Source: NASDAQ OMX
Senior Supervisors Group Issues Report on Risk Management Practices
October 21, 2009--The Senior Supervisors Group (SSG) that comprises senior financial supervisors from seven countries (United States, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, United Kingdom) today issued a report that evaluates how weaknesses in risk management and internal controls contributed to industry distress during the financial crisis.
The report — Risk Management Lessons from the Global Banking Crisis of 2008 — reviews in detail the funding and liquidity issues central to the recent crisis and explores critical areas of risk management practice in need of improvement across the financial services industry.
The report concludes that despite firms' recent progress in improving risk management practices, underlying weaknesses in governance, incentive structures, information technology infrastructure and internal controls require substantial work to address.
The observations and conclusions in the report reflect the results of two initiatives undertaken by the SSG. These initiatives involved a series of interviews with firms about funding and liquidity challenges and a self-assessment exercise in which firms were asked to benchmark their risk management practices against a series of recommendations and observations taken from industry and supervisory studies published in 2008.
This report represents a joint effort of nine supervisory agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Reserve in the United States. The other agencies are the Canadian Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, the French Banking Commission, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, the Japanese Financial Services Agency, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, and the U.K. Financial Services Authority.
These initiatives were conducted to support the priorities of the Financial Stability Board whose mission is to address vulnerabilities affecting the financial system and to promote global financial stability.
Source: SEC.gov
CME Group to accept gold as collateral
October 20, 2009--CME Clearing is introducing an enhancement to the existing Performance Bond Collateral schedule. Effective October 19, 2009, firms will be able to post physical gold to CME Clearing to cover non-segregated (NSEG) Performance Bond requirements. Initially, gold will be able to be posted to JP Morgan Chase Bank in London, England. In the near future, we hope to add additional depositories.
There will be a 15% asset haircut on the market value of all gold deposits. Additionally, gold can be applied to 20% Core, 50% Reserve and 50% of concentration requirement for your particular firm. There will be a firm asset limit of $200 million. These guidelines are subject to change and will be evaluated on a regular basis. Fees for storage, insurance and handling will be assessed by the custodian and passed on to the firms monthly. The total fees that will be charged is subject to change but is currently estimated at 5bps.
CME will send pre-notifications via email to back office managers each month which will reflect the date that these monies will be debited directly from your firm's house account. Prior to posting physical gold as collateral to CME Clearing for house accounts, a clearing firm will need to execute an English law title transfer agreement in the form specified by CME Clearing, which will cover all subsequent deposits of gold.
In order to obtain the title transfer agreement, please contact CME Clearing Financial Unit by phone at (312) 207-2594 or via email at Clearinghousefinancial@cmegroup.com.
The title transfer agreement will ensure that CME Clearing has the control over the collateral that is specified in CME rules, under English law, since the gold will be physically located in London.
Source: CME Group
