EXCHANGE NEWSWIRE, 15 July 2009

ICE: the US Federal Reserve has determined that ICE Trust is as risky as any insured bank. The Fed is requiring bank members of ICE Trust to set aside capital representing 20% of the money committed at the clearinghouse in the form of margin and guarantee funds.

LSE revenues for the fiscal 1Q10, ended June 30 2009, were down 8% Y/Y (-12% at constant currency) to £162 million. Revenue from equities trading was up 3% Q/Q to £37.5 mn (-27% Y/Y), derivatives revenue down 10% Q/Q to £5.5 mn (-20% Y/Y) and fixed income revenue up 2% Q/Q to £6.7 mn (-4% Y/Y). Issuer revenues were down 14% y/y to £17.9mn and post trade services were up 12% to $32.1 mn. LSE CEO Xavier Rolet said he sees opportunities in the UK corporate bond markets.

NASDAQ OMX made a filing with the SEC to extend the suspension of the rules requiring a minimum $1 closing bid price and a minimum market value of publicly held shares through Friday, July 31.

NASDAQ Dubai and the Middle East Investor Relations Society signed a MoU under which both parties will work together to provide educational seminars and initiatives for issuers, potential issuers and their advisors, as well as enhance understanding of how listed companies can communicate most effectively with the public.

NYX: NYSE Arca began trading the ProShares Credit Suisse 130/30 ETF which tracks the performance of the Credit Suisse 130/30 Large-Cap Index.

CME launched S&P500 weekly options contracts scheduled to begin trading on August 24. The contracts will expire European-style on the first and second Friday of each month.

ICAP might have a revised offer for LCH.Clearnet ready by September. LCH.Clearnet rejected ICAP’s €813 mn offer last May.

ICAP said revenues for fiscal 1Q10 ended June 2009 rose 10% y/y helped by a weaker pound sterling against other major currencies.  The company expects fiscal year 2010 profit before tax, amortization, impairments and one-off items to be in line with consensus of £337 mn.

NMCE plans to raise at least INR500 mn ($10 mn) through a stock private placement.

Financial Technologies agreed to integrate MCX’s NMCE segment into FTIL’s ODIN brokerage solution.

RTS Standard set a record turnover of $389 mn yesterday on a record 23,624 trades.

Prague Stock Exchange changed its exchange rules, including increasing the maximal order to CZK 150mn (from CZK40 mn for SPAD traded issues) for automatic trades and abolished the total supply surplus and total demand surplus within the auction regime for automatic trades.  The exchange chamber also decided to change the method for current price change calculation as well as allowable range calculation (basing the on the last trading day closing price).

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange: foreign investors were net buyers in 1H09, accounting for 30% of trading. Market capitalization is up 12% sequentially to AED282 bn (USD 77 bn).

SGX is introducing a new research scheme, SGX Equity Research Insights (SERI), scheduled to begin 20 October 20 and replace the current Research Incentive Scheme (RIS).

Instinet released Q2 volume statistics for its three US platforms: Instinet recorded an ADV of 377.27 mn shares (-2.8% Y/Y), CBX ADV 47 mn shares (+42% Y/Y) and Instinet Execution Experts ADV 80.32 mn (+23% Y/Y).

CLE: ECX 1H09 ADV increased 148% y/y to 20,797 contracts. CCX 1H09 volumes declined 44% to 259,034. CCFE 1H09 ADV increased 113% to 4,901 contracts.

Direct Edge and Quadriserv have agreed to develop tighter integration links between the cash market and the stock loan market. They will be the first to provide integrated, cross-market solutions at the market center level for industry participants.

DME has appointed Dr. Fereidun Fesharaki and Mr. Anthony Loh as new members of the DME Board of Directors. Dr. Fesharaki is the Chairman of FACTS Global Energy, an energy consultancy firm with offices in Singapore, London, and Hawaii. Mr. Loh joins as an independent director with many years of experience in capital markets across Asia.

7ticks launched a low-latency connectivity and proximity hosting services for BGC products.

Janus commenced a public offering of $150 mn in common stock and $150 mn in convertible notes due 2014. The proceeds will be used to repurchase up to $400 mn of the firms outstanding 2011, 2012 and  2017 senior notes.

Janus reported a 2Q09 EPS of $0.10 (vs. -5.22 in 1Q09 and $0.40 in 2Q08). AuM at June 30 stood at $132.6 bn (up 20% Q/Q) with $2.3 bn in net inflows.

Janus: CEO Gary Black resigned. Tim Armour (a Janus director) assumed as interim CEO.

Janus: Moody’s affirmed the company’s Baa3 senior rating but outlook remained negative.

ICE raised to “overweight” vs “equal weight” at Barclays. Target price was maintained at $116.

HKEx: Credit Suisse initiated coverage with an “underperform” rating and a HK$88 target price.

BM&FBovespa target price was raised to BRL11.80 at Santander but maintained its “underperform” rating due to an “unattractive” valuation.

Legg Mason was downgraded to “underperform” from “in-line” at FPK.

T. Rowe Price was raised to “in-line” from “underperform” at FPK.

Janus was raised to “in-line” from “underperform” at FPK.

Alliance Bernstein was raised to “outperform” from “in-line” at FPK.

Franklin Resources was raised to “outperform” from “in-line” at FPK.

Franklin Resources dropped out of talks to buy AIG’s asset management unit.

Redecard: Citi reduced the company’s 2010 and 2011 earnings by 10% and 20% respectively on the prospect of increased competition in the industry.

GFI: Amerex Brokers has formed a fee-based energy risk management and execution consulting division that will operate under the name Amerex Energy Consulting Services (AECS). AECS will help customers to construct hedge and risk management products in natural gas, electricity, emissions, RECs, coal, crude oil and refined products.

FCStone has appointed dairy industry expert Ken Bailey as a full-time consultant and broker. Dr. Bailey specializes in advising and executing risk management strategies for processors/dairy buyers to hedge their dairy component risks.

DTCC won approval from the SEC to impose higher operational standards on transfer agents. The requirements will take effect on January 1st and apply to agents participating on the FAST system. Agents will have to provide evidence of insurance in either a financial institution bond or a commercial crime policy.

US Treasury plans to present a recommendation to Congress on how to converge the SEC’s and CFTC’s rulebooks. “What we’re doing is we’re working closely with both agencies to try to explore options and bring them together in a position both can support” Secretary Geithner commented.

Provided By: Equity Research Desk, www.erdesk.com