imageEXCHANGE NEWSWIRE, 17 August 2010

SMX will begin operations on August 31 after receiving approval from the MAS last week. SMX will initially offer futures for physically delivered gold, Brent and WTI oil, and Euro-dollar futures.

ISE submitted a comment letter to the SEC recommending that the Commission examine the “high fees targeted at certain market participants at the BOX, CBOE, and NASDAQ OMX PHLX that harm retail investors by serving as a barrier to competition to interact with retail order flow. The discriminatory fee practices identified by ISE relate to certain fees applied to orders executed in BOX's Price Improvement Period, in the CBOE's Automated Improvement Mechanism and as PHLX’s Facilitation Orders transacted on the exchange floor”.

JSE 1H10 net income increased +13% Y/Y to ZAR207.6 mn on revenues of ZAR623.3 mn (+14.5% Y/Y). Foreigners invested ZAR19.1 bn in equities and ZAR36.2 bn in local bonds; equities’ velocity increased to 53% (H1 2009: 48.8%); commodity derivatives increased +15.9% Y/Y to ZAR20.6 mn.

SGX will extend the trading hours for its derivatives market by one hour to 2.00 a.m. from August 30. The exchange also plans to shorten the trading break between the T session close and the start of the pre-open of the T+1 session for trading SGX Nikkei 225 index and SGX MSCI Taiwan index products to 30 minutes.

NZX reported 1H10 EPS of NZD4.62 on revenues of NZD23.9 mn (+28.5% Y/Y) and expenses of NZD15.4 mn (+61% Y/Y). Net income for the period stood at NZD5.7 mn (-91% Y/Y). Revenues increased across all major categories except listings (NZD4.8 mn; -7.1% Y/Y) and market data (NZD4.7 mn; -23.5% Y/Y).

United Stock Exchange (USE) will launch trading in currency futures on August 31. USE will initially offer four currency pairs — dollar-rupee, euro-rupee, yen-rupee and pound-rupee. USE would then launch options. The exchange was promoted by 21 public sector banks and five private sector banks.

SMX will launch trading of gold futures, WTI crude oil, Brent crude oil and Eurodollar futures contracts on August 31 and implied there could be additional contracts launched at the same time.

GFI will offer senior notes by means of an offering memorandum to qualified institutional buyers and to certain persons in offshore transactions; expected to close the week of August 23, subject to customary closing conditions. Net proceeds will be used to repay existing credit agreement and existing senior secured notes due January 30, 2013. The Notes have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act.

Tullett Prebon Information appointed Christopher McGuigan as Head of the Americas. Christopher McGuigant manager of the Data Services business at MarketAxess.

Instinet introduced a US listed futures and options trading functionality within its Newport 3 execution management system.

Fortress Investment acquisition of Residential Capital’s European residential mortgage business was approved by the European Commission.

Waddell & Reed appointed Philip J. Sanders as Chief Investment Officer. Mr. Sanders was previously vice president and portfolio manager at WDR.

TD Ameritrade July DARTs declined -3% M/M to 327k; total client assets increased +5% M/M to $340 bn; avg. spread based balances increased +0.2% M/M to $54.8 bn and avg. fee-based balances increased +4.3% M/M to $63.4 bn.

ICE was upgraded to “Outperform” from “Neutral” at Credit Suisse. Target price was maintained at $125.

 

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