EXCHANGE NEWSWIRE, 18 August 2010
US Senator Ted Kaufman said the SEC should consider whether rules that cut equity trade costs made markets prone to instability, as high-frequency traders have too much flexibility in deciding when to conduct business. “At a minimum, the commission must carefully scrutinize and empirically challenge the mantra that investors are best served by narrow spreads. In reality, narrow spreads of small order size may be an illusion that masks a very ‘thin crust’ of liquidity,” Kaufman said.
The CFTC withdrew its proposed rule on energy position limits and would replace it with broader curbs on speculation for all commodities. CFTC said it plans to "publish a notice of rulemaking proposing Commission-set position limits and exemptions" and "intends to take account of the energy proposal and build on the substantive issues raised by the commenters."
DB1: Eurex will offer trading in KOSPI 200 Options from the end of August.
LSE appointed Victoria Brough as Head of Corporate Communications and Media Relations. Ms. Brough was previously Head of External Affairs at Thomson Reuters.
TMX: Ecopetrol, Colombia’s largest company by market capitalization, listed its shares on TSX.
LME approved Chicago and Detroit as points of good delivery for its steel billet contract, effective November 16.
SGX admitted Deutsche Bank as a Bank Clearing Member to its securities market.
Bursa Malaysia, the Securities Commission Malaysia and Bank Negara introduced the Electronic Share Payment facility for share transactions that allows stockbrokers to deposit share sales proceeds directly into the investors' bank accounts.
Henderson 1H10 net income totaled £33 mn, up from a -£0.6 mn loss a year ago; EPS increased +62% Y/Y to GBp4.5 and revenues from recurring activities increased +59% Y/Y to £236 mn. AUM declined -2.9% H/H to £56.4 bn at the end of June with net inflows in higher margin products of £1.0bn (net outflows of £0.6bn in 1H09).
Calamos: a law firm filed a putative class action lawsuit on behalf of an asserted class of common shareholders of Calamos Convertible and High Income Fund (NYSE: CHY), alleging a breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment in connection with the redemption of auction rate preferred securities by CHY following the collapse of auction markets in February 2008. The company believes that the lawsuit is without merit and intends to defend itself vigorously against the charges.
Invesco granted equity awards covering an aggregate maximum of 340,750 common shares to a total of 13 new employees of the investment team from Concord Capital that are joining Invesco Australia.
E*TRADE July DARTs declined -5% M/M to 129k, net new brokerage accounts totaled 4,536 and 2.7 mn ending brokerage accounts (+0.2% M/M). Total customer assets increased +5.8% M/M to $152.1 bn on net new assets of $0.5 bn.
optionsXpress July retail DARTs declined -6% M/M to 26.4k. Open accounts increased +0.4% M/M to 367.1k with 1.6k new accounts. Client assets increased +5% M/M to $7.4 bn and margin balances increased +4% M/M to $213 mn.
Interactive Brokers: day traders Svend Egil Larsen and Peder Veiby were arrested for the attack on cracking Timber Hill's trading algorithms and the manipulation of the share price of three companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
Henderson was downgraded to "Hold" from "Add" at Oriel Securities. No target price was provided.
JSE was downgraded to "Hold" from "Buy" at Investec. Target price was reduced to ZAr7,758 from ZAr7,816.
EFG International was downgraded to "Reduce” from “Buy” at Kepler. Target price was reduced to CHF11 from CHF22.
The SEC announced that Andrew J. Donohue will leave the agency in November after serving more than four years as its Director of the Division of Investment Management.
India’s Forward Market Commission revealed that Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani plans to buy a stake in the Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX), which offers trading in bullion. The regulator also said that Jaypee Capital plans to acquire 26% of NCDEX.
Provided By: Equity Research Desk, www.erdesk.com