In another stunning defeat for the foresight of the fourth estate, the HK media have finally woken up to appreciate “Through Train” is a success. At least they finally admitted it. Profile of the man who wants to take ASX forward (tricky part is their corporate governance model is apparently broadly addicted to monopolistic stasis). Well done GHF becoming the first remote clearing member of ASX. Crowdfunding: Reg A+, is it much use? Or is the notion of the SEC helping make better markets simply an oxymoron? NASDAQ/KBW launch interesting index partnership as new Dax derivatives emerge at EUREX…
Question of the day: ‘If everybody supports a Philippine Stock/Bond exchange merger then why is it taking so long to effect?’
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Public Markets
Chinese Cash Pours Into H.K. Stock Market Through New Gateway
Adam Haigh, Jonathan Burgos & Kyoungwha Kim – Bloomberg
HKEx: Day Of Records Of Securities Market As Stock Connect Trading Increases
MondoVisione
China’s exchange link is starting to live up to its promise as a gateway to Hong Kong’ stock market for mainland investors.
After failing to use more than 17% of the link’s daily quota in the first four months of the cross-border investment program, Chinese traders placed buy orders for the maximum amount of shares allowed on Wednesday and depleted almost the entire quota by the midday break Thursday. China’s move in March to expand link access to more mainland funds, along with growing speculation that valuation gaps between the two markets will close, is driving the surge in purchases.
PLY: So pleasing to see that finally Hong Kong’s media have managed to see the benefits to “through train” after immense and stupendously short-sighted criticism and cynicism about the endeavour previously.
See also our Premium brief: HKEx – SSE – Stock Connect Part 1,Part 2,Part 3
Philippine – Unified Equity-Bond Exchange Expected To Be Ready In Q2
Daxim L. Lucas – Philippine Daily Inquirer
On paper, merging two of the country’s biggest bourses — PSE for equities and PDEx for bonds—looks like a good idea.
But if everyone is for it, and no one is against it, why has it taken years—and counting—to create a unified equity-bond bourse for the Philippines when the technology needed for such a union is readily available?
PLY: Good question. So either people don’t really support it, or the system is sclerotic, inefficient and perhaps corrupt. Such charges have been raised about the general Philippine economy by others for many years of course…
Read our Premium: PSE – PDEx Merger Brief
ICAP’s EBS Select – Not A Dark Pool – Goes Live With First Trade
Phil Albinus – Traders Magazine
It’s a “non-disclosed, segmented, bilateral liquidity pool” for foreign exchange, okay?
ICAP press release here.
Private Markets
Public Offerings At BİST Drop To 5-Year Low In 2014
Today’s Zaman
The volume of public offerings at Borsa İstanbul (BİST) fell by 48.3% between 2013 and 2014, plummeting to its lowest level in the last five years.
PLY: Hmmm, Turkey is in a bit of a funk. Behind the scenes the political situation is a tad challenging while at the exchange, the potential remains vast but management needs to really push the market forward and marketing/promotion of IPOs is really only in its infancy. Vast potential remains.
QV our Premium BIST IPO Brief.
Shenzhen SE Launches Morning Disclosure, A Big Move For Deepening Information Disclosure System Reform
MondoVisione
Coinsetter Acquires Cavirtex
Daniel Roberts – Fortune
NY BTC exchange Coinsetter, has acquired Cavirtex, a Canadian bitcoin exchange, the first of what the Coinbase CEO sees as a pathway to greater consolidation.
Bitcoin Not Threatening, Has ‘Limited Use’ In Australia
Reissa Su – IBT
The Reserve Bank of Australia does not believe Bitcoin is a threat to Australia. The central bank told a Senate inquiry that the use of digital currencies like Bitcoin is limited in the country.
Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads
PLY: MCX and FTIL down 1%. News non-existent but my Twitter feed (@FrontierFinance) remains hyperactive as angry NSEL investors send in more evidence that doesn’t paint the likes of Jignesh Shah in a particularly favourable light…
Technology
Euronext Call Outlines Exchange Dilemma (subscription)
Luke Jeffs – FOW
Some large clearing brokers reacted angrily on Wednesday to a decision by Euronext to keep running only a portion of its servers after a technical glitch wiped out three of its main client portals.
Last week ENX suffered a one-hour halt on all derivatives products after a weekend technology change.
Tearing Down Walls At ASX
Liz Tay – IT News
ASX CIO Tim Thurman’s take-no-prisoners approach to agile management has laid the groundwork for the organisation’s $50 million tech transformation.
PLY: It’s fascinating to watch Tim Thurman, who occupies what has been perhaps the most innovative seat in exchange technology for much of that position’s history (think back to what the great Rory Collins did masterminding the first open outcry to electronic transition during the 1980’s for instance). However, when Rory served as CIO/CTO, the institution had its eyes firmly fixed on a dynamic future. Now, Tim Thurman retains a progressive forward-focussed vision while ASX corporate governance appears broadly rooted in defending an indefensible, leaden-footed monopoly which seeks to stifle progress in making better markets for the world as a whole when ASX’s narrowly focussed interests are not immediately safeguarded.
Products
Dairy Commodity Futures Offers Post-Quota Europe Milk Price ‘Safety Net’: Euronext
Mark Astley – Dairy Reporter
As reported last week, Euronext will launch three dairy commodity futures contracts within two weeks of the March 31st abolition of the EU milk quota.
The $33 Billion Silver Lining To Israel’s Stock-Market Exodus
Yaacov Benmeleh & Boris Korby – Bloomberg
As stock trading in Israel plunges and public offerings dry up, the country’s flagship bourse may have found a savior: exchange-traded notes.
The volume of trading in ETNs, which are similar to ETFs but have stricter return rules, rose to an average $100 million a day last year and now make up 35% of all TASE equity turnover, bourse data show. There are more than 6,200 ETPs worldwide, and Israel is home to about 10% of them, second only to the U.S.
Record levels of assets were reached at the end of Q1 for ETFs/ETPs listed Globally at US$ 2.926 trillion, in the United States at US$ 2.093 trillion, Asia Pacific ex-Japan at US$ 119.6, and Japan at US$ 109.3 billion, according to ETFGI’s preliminary monthly ETF and ETP global insight report for Q1.
Indexes
Nasdaq, KBW Form Index Partnership (subscription)
Tess Stynes – Wall Street Journal
Nasdaq and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods are forming a partnership to expand access to indexes and ETFs with more than $770 million in licensed assets under management.
Financial terms of the agreement, which focuses on the Stifel Financial KBW unit’s family of financial indexes, weren’t provided.
Nasdaq press release here.
DB1 Launches New ShortDAX & LevDAX Indices
MondoVisione
DB1 expanded its DAXplus strategy index offering with the launch of four new ShortDAX and LevDAX indices. The ShortDAX x9 and x10 indices and LevDAX x9 and x10 indices meet the needs of sophisticated market participants, based on different evaluations of market conditions, who are seeking access to leveraged investments in the DAX when prices rise or fall.
Career Paths
FN reports that the former Emea CFO at Deutsche Bank, Shona Milne, has become an independent director at LCH.Clearnet.
SEC announced that Gregg E. Berman, Associate Director of the Office of Analytics and Research in the Division of Trading and Markets, is leaving the agency later this month.
SEC Official Who Defended High-Speed Traders To Leave Agency
Dave Michaels – Bloomberg
Gregg Berman is leaving SEC, where he led efforts to get a grip on fragmented markets and HFT.
Top Tullett Prebon Staff Bonuses To Be Tied To Targets (subscription)
James Rundle – Financial News
Tullett Prebon is revamping its pay structure to link annual bonuses for its top executives to specific targets and objectives, an approach similar to that used by several big banks.
Financial Calendar
New announcements
Nasdaq Q1 2015 Financial Results – April 23, 2015 – press release here.
BGC Partners’ & GFI Group’s Q1 2015 Financial Results – April 29, 2015 – press release here.
All forthcoming exchange / investment related events are now listed in our Events page.
Analyst Notes
LSE “Outperform” Rating Reiterated By Credit Suisse – GBX 2,900, up from GBX 2,350
A full table of current analysis can be found on our Analyst Ratings page which is updated daily.
All Analysts, Banks and Brokers are welcome to contribute to this section.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding Experts Address New Regulation A+ Rules Live
Devin Thorpe – Forbes
SEC recently issued new rules for offerings under Regulations A, creating a two tier system that allows issuers to raise up to $50 million without facing all of the requirements of a public offering but potentially providing some of the benefits.
To help readers understand the nuances of the new regulations, I’ve assembled three experts to explain the issues and implications of the new regulations.
PLY: Now I have had a chance to peruse, I am not convinced we are making much progress. A+ demonstrates everything wrong with the regulatory blob which has become little other than a mid-career holding station for regulators to be ultimately employed on lucrative contracts by law firms whose bidding the regulators have collectively done while in office. The SEC is clearly struggling to get to grips with the modern world and where possible seeks, like all blobsters, to simply ignore it in the hope the problem will go away.
Other stories
GF Securities Sells Into China’s Market Mania (subscription)
Aaron Back – Wall Street Journal
With Chinese stocks on a tear, now is a good time to be selling shares in a Chinese brokerage. Profiting from such shares, however, depends on the market mania continuing.
GF Securities, China’s fourth-largest securities firm by assets, is attracting strong interest for its Hong Kong initial public offering. The company priced its shares at the top of their indicative range, raising $3.6 billion in Asia’s largest IPO this year.
GF Securities’ business is booming.