Welcome back! You have two issues today, a “digest” catching up over the festive season (already in your inbox) and this short but sweet headline portfolio which constitutes Monday’s ‘normal’ edition.
Incidentally, we will, as is our wont, omit the usual self-congratulatory hype overloaded exchange messages where bourses ‘remind’ us of their innate perfection (sic). However, the Stock Exchange of Thailand deserves plaudits for a New Year message which mentions market achievement while entirely underplaying the local political upheaval (at various times protesters were endeavouring to storm the exchange building!). This does deserve the “remarkable” tag in the SET headline – other exchange PRs please note if you have not already signed off on a breathless missive suggesting 2014 of innate brilliance.
Exchange Invest Daily remains free, oozes pith, and is ready for your delectation, happy scrolling:
Public Markets
Nasdaq Buys US Index Provider Dorsey Wright For $225m (subscription)
Nicole Bullock & Philip Stafford – Financial Times
PLY: A $225m deal, funded with a mix of debt and cash, based around growth in smart beta indexing. Interesting.
HKEx Surges On Report Li Backs Shenzhen Stock Link
Kana Nishizawa – Bloomberg
HKEx jumped the most in a month after a report that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said a stock link with Shenzhen should be established.
PLY: The HKEx dream of being the official gateway to China is being realised…
MCX-SX: Future Uncertain On FTIL Divestment Doubt
Suresh P Iyengar – The Hindu Business Line
MCX-SX may face regulatory sanction as FTIL is yet to divest its stake, missing an end year deadline.
Private Markets
BIST To Sign Deal With LSE
Daily Sabah
Borsa Istanbul (BIST), is signing a deal with LSE (in addition to its existing deal with NASDAQ which holds stock against IT provision), apparently related to index promotion.
BSE Seeks Simpler Norms For Stock Exchanges Going Public
The Economic Times
Seeking simpler norms for listing of stock exchanges, top bourse BSE has suggested that the government exempt them from tougher regulations applicable to corporate entities going public.
Products
HKEx Should Focus On Commodities, Boosting Trading Ties With China (subscription)
Enoch Yiu – South China Morning Post
HKEx should strengthen trading connections with the mainland this year and further develop commodities trading, say analysts. They also urged HKEx to adopt measures from other exchanges to help boost turnover and attract more new listings.
Career Paths
OCC announced seven officer promotions including some as part of a reorganization supporting the company’s efforts to meet the heightened expectations of regulators and market participants for systemically important clearing houses like OCC.
Jim Kustusch to SVP, Operations from First VP, Business Operations. Carole Bovard to First VP, Compliance from Vice President, Compliance. Dan Busby to First VP, Business Operations and Management Controls from Vice President, Project Management Office. Jeffrey Douglas to VP, Technology Services from Director, Storage Services & Enterprise Systems Management. Matt Hughes to VP, Executive Liaison to the Chairman from Director, Executive Liaison to the Chairman. Larry Leonard to VP and Associate General Counsel from Director and Assistant General Counsel. Sheila Zak to VP, Member Services from Director, Member Services.
Arif Amiri has been appointed Deputy CEO of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Authority.
Top GFI Staff Seek Exit Clause If Rival BGC Bid Succeeds (subscription)
Philip Stafford – Financial Times
More than 100 senior employees at GFI Group are seeking changes to their contracts that would allow them to leave the company if a hostile takeover bid by rival BGC Partners is successful.
PLY: If management change contracts for even a fraction of this number of people, it may lead to all manner of legal complications. BGC will be quick to claim that GFI management is materially altering the business to help their own attempts to retain control of the business.
For the background, see the EI Premium Brief: The bidding war for GFI between BGC and CME/GFI.
Pimco Fires Money Manager After CME Violation
Reuters
Pimco has dismissed money manager Rahul Seksaria after CME fined him for a trading violation.
Financial Calendar
CBOE Q4 2014 Financial Results – Friday, February 6, 2015
SGX Q2 FY2015 Financial Results – 21 January 2015
All forthcoming exchange / investment related events are now listed in our Events page.
Analyst Notes
LSE“Outperform” Rating Reiterated By RBC Capital – GBX 2,150 Price Objective
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Set A $32.00 Target Price On Interactive Brokers – “Buy” Rating
Lending Club Earns “Hold” Rating From Rafferty Capital Markets
CME Has Been Given An “A+” Credit Rating By Morningstar
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.