On behalf of myself, Florin and all the DV Advisors / Exchange Invest team, we wish all our readers a very Happy Day whatever/wherever you are celebrating. Happy Hanukkah and at the same time Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers.
So a quiet day in prospect, certainly for the NYSE HR department as incumbents pause in their rush for the exits but EI today has multiple interesting stories on SMEs, BIST shareholdings, SGX leading in probity, DMA developments, new markets of interest and more…
Finally, an interesting nugget, the Romanian FSA Head, Mircea Ursache, has floated the idea of increasing the shareholding limit in exchanges to 32,99 % from the current 5%.
Time to scroll:
Public Markets
Borsa Istanbul Seeks Nasdaq Investment (subscription)
Financial Times
BIST CEO Ibrahim Turhan wants Nasdaq OMX to take an equity stake in his bourse of between 5 and 20 per cent ahead of a formal announcement of the US exchange’s investment. It is expected by December 11, when Robert Greifeld, Nasdaq CEO, is due to visit Turkey.
PLY: If NASDAQ has serious ‘skin in the game’ it may help at least this ‘partnership’ turn into a more functional working relationship, above and beyond the lucrative provision of NASDAQ OMX’s trading system to BIST of course.
SGX Chief: ‘We Need Tougher Regulations And Efficient Capital Markets’
eco-business.com
SGX CEO Magnus Bocker has called on all Singapore-listed companies to better disclose and report their environmental, social and governance footprints, highlighting the role of efficient capital markets in helping responsible companies grow
Bocker acknowledged SGX’s role as the frontline regulator of listed companies, saying SGX will “take the lead” as custodians of corporate responsibility.
PLY: In the week when SGX said they would also allow Chinese listings, it is vital that Magnus retains his, and SGX’s, reputation for probity.
Nasdaq OMX Nordic Launches Intraday Auctions To Improve Liquidity In SME Shares
Nasdaq OMX
Nasdaq OMX will launch a scheduled intraday auction on certain market segments in Denmark, Finland and Sweden to improve liquidity in less traded shares, thereby contributing to SME funding and growth.
PLY: A very good idea. Often discussed but rarely, if ever, tested. The idea of continuous liquidity for small caps over 8 or 10 hour days, is frankly, misguided. Having concentrated ‘fixes’ ought to help the secondary market. Plaudits to OMX NASDAQ for their ongoing efforts to help improve SME funding.
Milan Bourse Aims To Become Luxury-Goods Hub
gazzettadelsud.it
Milan, already a global powerhouse in fashion, is becoming a hub for financing fashion too as Borsa Italiana boss Raffaele Jerusalmi notes:
“Over the past four years, about 50% of the listings of fashion and luxury-goods firms in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), in terms of market capitalization, have taken place in Milan.”
PLY: Sectoral concentration makes sense and with various dynamic secondary investment banks as well as large names present, it presents considerable opportunity to Milan, albeit with Paris a threat in Europe. Moreover global competition is apparent from Hong Kong when it can muster great multiples (Milan’s Prada chose this route, although this transaction was not as successful as originally hoped).
Jamaica SE To Allow Investors To Trade Stocks – Online Platform Under Development
jamaica-gleaner.com
Jamaica SE is creating an online platform that will allow individual investors to buy and sell stocks – a function now limited to stockbrokers – and is simultaneously developing the blueprint for a commodities exchange in a push for market diversification and growth.
PLY: Fascinating, who would have thought Jamaica could lead the world in DMA for all manner of clients?
Tin Gains Seen By Indonesia As Top Shipper Takes Aim At LME
Bloomberg
Indonesia is seeking higher tin prices as the largest exporter presses on with a policy that metal be traded on a local exchange before shipment, affirming a shift that roiled the market when it began three months ago.
PLY: An interesting development from what is a blatantly protectionist move by Indonesia.
Private Markets
Bitcoin Passes The $1000 Mark For First Time
dailymail.co.uk
Virtual currency Bitcoin has passed the $1,000 (£613) mark for the first time since it was introduced in 2009.
According to the currency’s main exchange, Mt.Gox, the price for a single Bitcoin has almost quadrupled since its previous record high of $267 (£165) less than three weeks ago
PLY: Value will more than likely retrace along the way but the clear pointer is, volatility or not, central banking is broken, government money is not trusted and Bitcoin is blazing the trail creating a new system of money which has long been predicted. The revolution is happening…
Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads
PLY: MCX and FTIL shares flat to slightly higher a trials and tribulations continue while another lifetime bureaucrat becomes an exchange Chairman.
MCX Appoints Satyananda Mishra As Chairman
Business Standard
MCX has appointed Satyananda Mishra, retired Indian Administrative Service officer, as the chairman. Mishra was the chief commissioner of information till September this year.
Miten Mehta, a shareholder director of FTIL has been also appointed on the board of the exchange.
PLY: While individual candidates may be ideally qualified to lead exchanges, the rise of the bureaucrats to chair Indian exchanges is, frankly a worry. It endangers Indian capitalism – such as it is – and leads to the clear implication that the government-regulatory complex is trying to control the market. That is not encouraging for investors or issuers.
Top Management Of FTIL To Be Thoroughly Investigated, Says Court
Livemint
The top management of FTIL, the parent of the crisis-ridden NSEL, need to be more thoroughly investigated by the police, the Bombay high court said on Wednesday.
PLY: I think pretty much everybody in the world who has read anything of NSEL would agree that only with a thorough investigation can we reach some appreciation of the truth and hence clear the air.
Nilesh Patel’s Bail Plea Rejected
Business Standard
The sessions court on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of Nilesh Patel, managing director of NK Proteins, the largest defaulter in the NSEL payment crisis.
The court extended the judicial custody of the former managing director of NSEL, Anjani Sinha, till December 11.
Technology
Traiana Announces Cross Jurisdiction UTI Management Solution
MondoVisione
Traiana, has launched a comprehensive Unique Trade Identifier (UTI) management solution using the Harmony network.
The Traiana UTI management service facilitates the exchange of UTIs between counterparts, thereby allowing both parties to a trade to report using a common trade identifier, to the same or different trade repositories.
Products
LME Plans To List New Commodities Futures In Hong Kong
Reuters
LME plans to list new commodities futures in Hong Kong in the second half of next year, targeting include iron ore and coal.
Bombay SE To Launch Currency Derivative Platform On Friday
The Economic Times
BSE will launch trading in currency derivatives from Friday, making it the fourth bourse in the country to offer such trades following on from National SE (NSE), MCX-SX and United SE (USE).
PLY: An increasingly competitive marketplace but at the same time the prospects for forex to grow are simply vast, especially if/when India liberalises its currency laws.
Indexes
CBOE Introduces Mid-Term Volatility Index
CBOE
CBOE has created the CBOE Mid-Term Volatility Index (ticker: VXMT), a measure of the expected volatility of the S&P 500 Index over a six-month time horizon, calculated using VIX methodology applied to S&P 500 Index (SPX) options that expire six to nine months in the future.
Career Paths
Financial News has learned that Lisa Dallmer, COO for European cash market execution services at NYSE Euronext, is planning to leave the group by the end of the year.
New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has appointed Rob Everett as its new CEO, effective 3 February 2014.
Financial Calendar
Tomorrow:
GFI Group $0.05 Q3 dividend payment
Record date CBOE Q4 $0.18 dividend
Record date Interactive Brokers $0.10 Q3 dividend
Financial Technologies Q2 results
All forthcoming exchange / investment related events are now listed in our Events page.
Share Notes
Following his sale of 11,867 shares Friday, November 22nd at an average price of $24.21 (bargain $287,300.07) reported on November 27th Interactive Brokers Chairman Earl Nemser sold another 12,117 shares Tuesday, November 26th at an average price of $24.28 (bargain $294,200.76).
Analyst Notes
NASDAQ OMX “Neutral” Rating Reiterated At Citigroup – $40.00 Price Target
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
P2P Mortgage Business Eyes Crowdfunding Cash
insidermedia.com
A Liverpool-headquartered peer-to-peer mortgage funding provider is seeking to raise £85,000 on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.
Crowd Mortgage, a platform which would allow savers to lend money directly to borrowers, is seeking to raise cash to complete the development of its technology.
Other stories
Wells Fargo Said To Consider LME Membership To Expand Clearing
Bloomberg
Wells Fargo, the U.S. lender that’s building its investment-banking unit, is considering applying for membership to the LME so it can clear more trades for clients, seeking to become a Category 2 member of the exchange.