Stake moves and a (hopefully temporary) halt to HKMEX. That said a 100 million dollars rights issue sounds steep when you can frankly build a complete new bourse for a whole lot less in this day and age (albeit regulatory capital often bloats the cost of exchanges). However, we hope to see HKMEX back while elsewhere in the world, some discussion of US regulation from the NYT and a great deal more in today’s bulletin:
Public Markets
Turkey talks for LSE (subscription required)
The Sunday Times
The London Stock Exchange is considering buying a stake in Istanbul’s fast-growing stock market as part of a deal that could see Turkish trades settled in the City.
Borsa Istanbul has been seeking an international partner to overhaul its technology and improve the market’s access to foreign investors for several months.
Intercontinental Exchange mergers and acquisitions NYSE material completed in September this year
www.best-news.us
Sina Finance YORK May 17 afternoon, sources today revealed to the Sina Finance, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) acquisition of NYSE Euronext (NYSE Euronext) has been examined and approved by European Union antitrust authorities is expected in September this year single mergers and acquisitions will be completed.
The end of December 2012, the boards of both companies agreed, the Intercontinental Exchange announced a $ 8.2 billion NYSE parent company M & A in February this year, the acquisition proposal by the U.S. antitrust authorities for examination and approval, the audit submitted to the relevant departments of the European Union in April.
MCX to announce FY13 results on May 29, 2013
Equity Bulls
A meeting of the Board of Directors of Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd will be held on May 29, 2013, to consider and approve the audited financial results of the Company for the year ended March 31, 2013 and to recommend final dividend, if any.
Private Markets
Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange closes its doors
South China Morning Post
The Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange will go ahead with a planned US$100 million rights issue and be ready within months to reapply for the trading licence it handed back to regulators at the weekend after it became clear the struggling commodity trader could no longer meet crucial financial criteria.
HKMEx chairman Barry Cheung Chun-yuen told the Sunday Morning Postthat the decision to surrender the trading licence and not reopen for business tomorrow would have no impact on investors and that client contracts would be honoured.
Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange fails amid dearth of gold futures trading
South China Morning Post
The Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange’s failure to come up with a viable gold futures business proved to be its undoing as it wilted under competition from more established domestic and international exchanges, market participants say.
The HKMEx, launched in 2011 after two years of delay, struggled to achieve the trading volumes that would justify its operating expenses, it said on Saturday.
Originally designed to be a platform for fuel oil futures, the HKMEx ended up being an exchange for gold contracts.
HKMEx chairman Barry Cheung Chun-yuen last night denied media reports that said a businessman who had supported Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying had lent him more than HK$100 million.
India’s National Stock Exchange launches online bond trading
IFR Asia
India’s National Stock Exchangelaunched online trading of domestic corporate bonds last week, a service expected to add the much-needed depth to the local market for term debt.
India’s current five-year development plan calls for US$1trn to be spent on infrastructure. As banks are already near lending limits, the bond market is becoming increasingly important. An online platform may have arrived just in time.
Questor: Betfair shows resilience as takeover talks collapse
Telegraph.co.uk
Betfair’s punters are used to high-stakes games. But until last month, few in the City would have expected that they would be placing bets on the gambling exchange itself. The stock was in danger of being forgotten by gaming analysts until on April 15, CVC Capital Partners, admitted it was in talks with two Betfair shareholders over a takeover bid for the gambling group, which has been a public company since 2010, when it floated at £13 a share. Three approaches were made, at 880p a share, 920p a share and 950p, before offer talks ended late on Monday night.
TOM (The Order machine) has moved to London
TOM is pleased to announce that the matching engine has successfully migrated from Stockholm to the new standalone environment in London this weekend.
The move to London will facilitate the growing interest from financial institutions from the United Kingdom in TOM and the increased capacity of the systems will cater for further expansion in Europe in the future. Currently TOM has an overall market share in the Dutch options of 22% and in index options of 32%.
Products
CME Group sees first trade for RIN futures
Reuters
The CME Group’s newly-launched renewable identification number (RIN) futures contracts saw their first trade on Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the exchange operator.
The futures contract allows buyers to hedge their risk in the government-mandated renewable fuel credits in lots of 50,000 on the CME’s New York Mercantile Exchange. The CME listed nine contracts across three types of RINs – ethanol, biodiesel and advanced biofuel – on Monday.
Zhengzhou exchange may delay thermal coal futures
Global Times
The Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE), one of China’s three futures exchanges, may introduce trading of thermal coal futures later than expected thanks to contract design problems, the China Energy News reported Sunday, citing an insider close to the matter.
The ZCE modified the contract after exchange officials realized that they had overlooked blending practices routinely employed by thermal coal users, a mistake which may push back the contract’s debut until the second half of this year, the anonymous source said. The ZCE was unreachable for comment Sunday.
Technology
Aquis Exchange Links With Fixspec
Aquis Exchange Limited, the proposed pan-European stock exchange, and FixSpec, the FIX certification and connectivity specialist, have entered into an agreement which will facilitate Member testing for FIX order entry specifications and offer an automated certification platform for Aquis Exchange.
The arrangement allows prospective Aquis Exchange Members to access interactive versions of the FIX specifications, as well as a range of development tools designed to make connecting faster and easier. Tools include FixSpec’s visual FIX decoder and the ability to quickly compare Aquis Exchange specifications against FIX Protocol Standards and other exchange specifications thereby reducing the amount of time spent manually comparing documents.
Appointments
A Hearing and An Election Ahead For Former IRS Commissioner Shulman (subscription required)
The Wall Street Journal
Douglas Shulman, former commissioner for the Internal Revenue Service, will get a glimpse of both his past and future next week.
On Wednesday, Shulman, who led the IRS from March 2008 until last November, is expected to appear before a House of Representatives committee looking into the agency’s targeting of conservative political groups.
The following day, shareholders of CBOE Holdings Inc. will decide whether Shulman will join the board of their company, which runs the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
Philippines – Elated stakeholders reelect stock exchange board
Business Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—The 15-member Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) board led by chair Jose Pardo and president Hans Sicat has obtained a fresh mandate from stockholders for another one-year term as guardians of the bullish local stock market.
This is the third term for the Pardo-Sicat tandem whose board has been elected every year. All 15 board members ran unopposed for a second straight year.
Crowdfunding
Venture Firm InCube Builds a Crowdfunding Site of its Own
Wall Street Journal (blog)
In what may be an industry first (in finance) venture firm InCube Ventures has unveiled a crowdfunding site of its own dubbed VentureHealth.
The new platform will differentiate itself from “rewards-based” crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, or sites that help consumer technology startups raise seed money, like AngelList, Microventures or Crowdfunder, by focusing on health startups exclusively.
NEST Announces the Launch of New Crowdfunding Platform
Pure Energy Systems News
New Energy Systems Trust (NEST) is pleased to announce the launch of a new crowdfunding platform, New Energy Funding (NEF), at NewEnergyFunding.com. The platform will be focused exclusively on hosting fundraising projects for new and exotic free energy devices and projects related to exotic energy.
Crowd-Funding: A great opportunity for start-ups but
Moneycontrol.com
Crowd-funding is thus a great alternative to raising funds with minimum risk involved.
The concept is already very popular in the US through portals like kickstarter.com, and indiegogo.com but it is only just picking up in India.
As a yardstick of its success globally, check out these figures: In 2012, crowd-funding portals helped companies and individuals worldwide raise $2.7 billion from members of the public, an 81-per cent increase over the previous year.
Other stories
Analysis: High speed trading a stiff challenge for U.S. regulators
Reuters
Financial trading in world markets has grown so lightning-fast that effective regulation is growing tougher by the second, increasing the threat of crashes sparked by hoaxes, electronic glitches or yet-unknown causes.
The latest alarm was triggered by a fake tweet saying that the White House was bombed, prompting a U.S. market nosedive that ended minutes later when the Associated Press said its Twitter account had been hacked. In 2010 U.S. stocks plunged in a “flash crash” following aggressive sales of stock-index futures by a mutual fund.
Derivatives Reform on the Ropes
New York Times
New rules to regulate derivatives, adopted last week by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, are a victory for Wall Street and a setback for financial reform. They may also signal worse things to come.
The regulations, required under the Dodd-Frank reform law, are intended to impose transparency and competition on the notoriously opaque multitrillion-dollar market for derivatives, which is dominated by five banks: JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.