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SRI asset growth in Australia and US outstrips mainstream market
November 19, 2010--The rate of asset growth into SRI-related strategies is outstripping the broad market growth of mainstream investment funds, according to two new surveys looking at Australia and the US. In Australia, the 2010 Benchmark report by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA), which covers the financial year to June 30, 2010, said managed responsible investment portfolios rose by 10% from AU $14.02bn to AU $15.41bn, beating growth in the broader market of managed portfolios which rose 9% in the same period.
The RIAA report said that a broader ‘core’ responsible investment market measurement (a combination of specialised managed funds, community finance, green loans, RI charity investments and financial adviser portfolios) had risen 13% from AU $16.15bn to AU $18.19bn. Over half all funds under management in Australia are now signed to the United Nations backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The RIAA report said there had been a rise in Australian PRI signatories of 29% during 2009, with 112 Australian signatories running assets of US $591bn now representing 14% of the PRI global signatory base. Significantly, the RIAA report said Australian RI funds had outperformed average mainstream funds over one,
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Source: Responsible Investor
Gold ETFs glitter; October collections double to 13.99 tonnes
November 19, 2010--Holdings under gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) saw a surge in October as collections almost doubled to 13.99 tonnes on a year-on-year basis, according to commodity analysts. Gold collections under gold ETFs in October 2009 amounted to 7-8 tonnes.
“This is the first time that gold collection numbers have doubled on a year-on-year basis,” said Mr Vibhu Ratandhara, Assistant Vice-President, Bonanza Commodity Brokers.
“They are a safe haven investment and are also preferred for reasons of portfolio diversification,” said Mr Ratandhara.
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Source: The Hindu Business Line
Thai bourse lists first ETF based on Chinese securities on November 22
November 19, 2010--The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) will list W.I.S.E-KTAM CSI 300 China Tracker, or ETF CHINA, an open-ended fund managed by Krung Thai Asset Management PCL.
It is Thailand’s fourth ETF and the first with foreign securities as its underlying. The fund will list in Unit Trust Sector on November 22, using “CHINA” as its trading symbol. This new product aims at increasing investment alternatives to Thai investors. We are confident that it will receive great attention from both institutional and retail investors, revealed SET President Charamporn Jotikasthira
Source: RYT9.com
SGX Euro Stoxx to start trading from Dec 6
November 19, 2010--Singapore Exchange (SGX) announced on Friday that the SGX Euro Stoxx 50 Index futures and options on futures will start trading on its derivatives market from December 6.
SGX said the debut of the US-dollar denominated products mark the first time these products are available in Asia.
Senior Vice President of Derivatives at SGX, Janice Kan, said the launch will allow investors to respond to developments occurring outside of European trading hours but affecting European equity markets.
She added that this would bring a more international flavour to SGX's suite of equity index derivatives.
Source: Channel News Asia
China makes moves to curb inflation
November 19, 2010--Beijing and Hong Kong have unveiled a raft of measures to curb rising prices as both governments struggle to curb inflationary pressures and real estate speculation in their fast-growing economies.
The Chinese central bank on Friday raised capital reserve requirements for its banks for the fifth time this year to “appropriately control” credit and liquidity.
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Source: FT.com
Zhou: SSE to Promote Indexation Investment by Three Stages
November 18, 2010--The indexation investment on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) in future will adopt a three-step strategy, namely introducing cross-variety ETFs while boosting cross-market and cross-border ETFs, and in order to achieve that, the SSE has signed the agreements on index authorization with nine international index companies and five exchanges, SSE Vice President Zhou Qinye said on November 15.
Zhou noted in his speech at the "4th Index and Indexation Investment Forum" on the same day that the SSE has always attached importance to index and indexation investment. Although the SSE has some traditional indices, such as SSE Composite Index and SSE 30 Index, unfortunately, they are not suitable for investment. In 2002, the SSE released SSE 180 Index, followed by SSE 50 Index. In recent years, the SSE transferred all its index-related maintenance and management to China Securities Index Co., Ltd. (CSI). So far, the number of indices headed with "SSE" has reached nearly 80. Meanwhile, the indexation investment on the SSE has seen a remarkable progress. By the end of last year, there had been five ETFs traded on the SSE. This year, another seven are introduced. These twelve ETFs boast an asset size up to RMB50 billion.
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Source: Shanghai Securities News
Shanghai Stock Exchange: ETFs To Bloom On A-Stock Market
Actively-managed ETFs, inverse ETFs and leveraged ETFs will be the goal of innovation in future.
November 18, 2010--China Securities Index Co., Ltd. (CSI) held the 4th Index and Indexation Investment Forum in Shanghai on November 15, where experts made in-depth discussion on the topic of "indexation investment in the backdrop of financial innovation" and agreed that the indexation investment in China is facing a great development opportunity, with actively-managed ETFs, inverse ETFs, leveraged ETFs and long/short strategic ETFs being the main goal of ETF innovation in future.
Delivering keynote speeches at the forum were Tong Daochi, Director of International Cooperation Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Fang Xinghai, Director of the Shanghai Financial Service Office, Zhou Qinye, Vice President of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Zhou Jiannan, Assistant to President of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
The past two years witnessed the unprecedented development and innovation of index products, particularly ETF products, on the capital market in China's mainland. The year of 2009 was nicknamed "The Year of Index Fund" as the number of index products introduced to the public went beyond the total in the past seven years. Among the 29 index products, four were ETFs. The upsurge of indexation investment is gaining momentum this year. By November 12, 10 out of 38 issued index products had been ETFs, indicating a dramatic rise in proportion.
Besides, the types of index products are diversified as thematic index funds, strategic index funds, thematic ETFs, strategic ETFs and other new products vie to make their debuts. By the end of October, there had been 79 index products (including 53 index funds) as well as 15 ETFs and 11 feeder funds, boasting net asset values of about RMB240 billion and RMB80 billion, respectively. The number of index products had accounted for about 12% of that of all mutual funds, with the net asset values accounting for about 13% of that of the total.
Financial system innovation provides a favorable environment for further development of indexation investment. Strategic indices based on quantitative strategy and derivatives are prevalent, while actively-managed ETFs, inverse ETFs, leveraged ETFs and long/short strategic ETFs are becoming the main goals of ETF innovation in the days to come. The introduction of ETF options and warrants and other derivatives in future will in turn boost the growth of ETFs.
Source: Shanghai Securities News
IMF Working paper-Emerging Asia’s Impact on Australian Growth: Some Insights From GEM
November 18, 2010--Summary: Over the last decade, GDP growth in emerging Asia was roughly twice as fast as average world growth. The IMF’s Global Economy Model (GEM) is used to estimate the impact that emerging Asia’s growth differential has had on Australia. The simulation analysis, which replicates some key features from the last decade, suggests that roughly 25 percent of Australia's growth over the last decade has been from emerging Asia’s growth differential over that period.
Looking ahead, the analysis suggests that should emerging Asia continue to grow in a similar fashion, Australia’s growth dividend could almost double. On the other hand, if growth in emerging Asia remained strong, but became more balanced across the tradable and nontradable goods sectors then Australia’s growth dividend would be slightly lower than the estimate for the last decade.
view working paper-Emerging Asia’s Impact on Australian Growth: Some Insights From GEM
Source: IMF
New measures to raise investors’ awareness of synthetic ETFs
November 18, 2010--The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) announced today (Thursday) a new effort to raise investors’ awareness of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that primarily adopt synthetic replication strategy (synthetic ETFs). A traditional ETF (also known as physical ETF) invests in securities that replicate or represent the composition of the index it tracks, and a synthetic ETF uses financial derivative instruments to track index performance (Note 1).
Synthetic ETFs’ managers have agreed to adopt new measures aimed at helping investors to better differentiate between index tracking strategies of ETFs. The new measures, supported by the SFC, HKEx and the industry following extensive discussions, are in line with ongoing efforts to strengthen protection for investors.
Addition of marker to stock short names of synthetic ETFs
Effective from 22 November, 2010, a marker X will be placed at the beginning of the English and Chinese stock short names of all synthetic ETFs listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK), a wholly-owned subsidiary of HKEx.
The marker will make synthetic ETFs more visible on the stock pages of HKEx’s securities trading system and on the HKEx website and the HKExnews website. The stock short names of traditional ETFs will remain the same (Note 2).
Annotation of names of synthetic ETFs
Building on the preceding measure, by 16 January 2011, managers of synthetic ETFs will be required to put an asterisk (*) and an annotation in English “(*This is a synthetic ETF)” and in Chinese “(*???????????????)”, as the case may be, right after the name of a synthetic ETF whenever it appears in offering documents and marketing materials for a synthetic ETF issued by the manager or on the manager’s behalf to investors in Hong Kong (Note 3).
This requirement will also be applicable to all notices and other communications with Hong Kong investors in respect of synthetic ETFs whenever the name of the synthetic ETF is mentioned, including information on the corporate websites for Hong Kong investors run by or on behalf of synthetic ETFs’ managers.
The SFC and HKEx believe these new measures will allow investors to easily identify synthetic ETFs from other ETFs before making any investment decisions.
Investor education initiatives
The SFC will continue its investor education efforts to help investors better understand synthetic ETFs.
HKEx is updating its product education material to explain the purpose of the stock short name marker and the risks of ETFs using synthetic replication.
HKEx will also enhance the HKEx website to highlight disclosure of ETF product features. For example, it will indicate which ones use synthetic replication and which ones do not. This will help investors find ETFs by their product features more easily.
HKEx has enhanced the hyperlinks to ETF websites from the HKEx website to provide easier navigation to ETF websites.
Other measure to enhance transparency of ETFs
To assist managers of ETFs in complying with the ongoing disclosure obligations under the Code on Unit Trusts and Mutual Funds and/or Listing Agreement, the SFC and HKEx today jointly issued a circular containing a list of potential events that may trigger such disclosure obligation.
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Source: Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx)
Indonesia’s middle class comes of age
November 18, 2010--Dini Shanti, a web marketer, struggled for years to pay the rent and put food on the table for her two children
Yet in the past 24 months she has moved into a new home, bought her retired father a car and begun paying into investment funds and a life assurance policy.
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Source: FT.com
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