Industry news

November 12, 2012: TMX To Close Alpha Listings Business; London Stock Exchange Gets French Okay For LCH.Clearnet Takeover; NYSE Gaining Ground On Nasdaq In IPO Race

TMX Group plans to discontinue the listing side of recently-acquired Alpha Exchange as it consolidates functions within the company. The London Stock Exchange gets a regulatory thumbs up in France to proceed with its LCH.Clearnet takeover. NYSE Euronext shows signs of taking over more of the technology-listing sandbox from Nasdaq OMX.

First Read

Compromises may hold new bourse back
Kate Burgess – FT.com
Add committees and compromises to good intentions and the road to hell is well and truly tarmacked. NYSE Euronext, Europe’s stock exchange, wants to set up a new pan-European Entrepreneurial Exchange for small and mid-cap companies. The idea is that the new bourse will swallow up Alternext, Euronext’s existing small-cap market, as well as up to 900 midsized companies valued at less than E1bn that are currently listed on Euronext.
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Companies jostle for position as bond trading goes electronic
Michelle Price, Tim Cave and Giles Turner – Financial News
The SIX Swiss Exchange is exploring the creation of a pan-European multilateral trading facility for fixed income, according to two people familiar with the project.
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**CN: The latest development, as new regulations push more bond trading to electronic platforms.

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Product head swaps Singapore Exchange for rival
Tom Osborn – Financial News
The head of product development for commodity derivatives at the Singapore Exchange has left and is set to join its rival the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange, Financial News has learned.
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John W. Henry to Stop Managing Client Money
GREGORY ZUCKERMAN – WSJ.com
John W. Henry & Co., a trading firm controlled by the principal owner of baseball’s Boston Red Sox, told clients it will stop managing their money at year-end amid dwindling assets and slumping returns.
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Traders in limbo as short-selling rules bite
Tim Cave – Financial News
It was a particularly harrowing Halloween week for some dealers and trading firms this year. If the impact of the Hurricane Sandy wasn’t enough to contend with, the first pan-European legislation on short selling also came into effect.
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Despite a Regulatory Black Mark, Trader Landed at Morgan Stanley
SUSANNE CRAIG – NYTimes.com
On Wall Street, a black mark on your regulatory files can be a significant employment hurdle, making it difficult to work at a major bank again. That wasn’t the case with Matthew Marshall Taylor.
jlne.ws/W3b5eR

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Capital markets: Exchange is step to closer co-operation
Jeremy Grant – FT.com
China has no shortage of stock and derivatives exchanges. So it may have seemed odd last month when another one was launched as a three-way joint venture between the Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses.
jlne.ws/W3b5eS

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Dubai oil exchange opens Singapore office
Philip Stafford – FT.com
The Dubai Mercantile Exchange is to open its first overseas office, in Singapore, as it targets China and India in its push to establish a new global benchmark for oil futures.
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Goldman Sachs: Protecting the partnership
Giles Turner and Harriet Agnew – Financial News
In autumn 2008, as Lehman Brothers was collapsing and the solvency of every other investment bank was cast into doubt, senior executives at Goldman Sachs were conducting lengthy discussions about which managing directors should be promoted to partner.
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Recipes for risk-weighted assets smell a bit fishy
William Wright – Financial News
One of the more curious aspects of financial reform over the past few years is that the same banks whose complex risk management models so conspicuously failed in the run-up to the crisis should be allowed to use their own models to work out how much capital they need to avoid getting into trouble again.
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MarketsWiki

MarketsWiki Page of the Day
Demetria O’Sullivan
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Thomas Grisafi; Demetria O’Sullivan; John J. Lothian

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Lead Stories

TMX to close Alpha listings business
Philip Stafford in London – FT.com
TMX Group is to close down the listings business of its newly-acquired Alpha bourse and cut 100 jobs in the next 12 months as the operator of Canada’s largest stock exchange looks to reposition itself as a significant group in North America.
jlne.ws/W3b5vj

London Stock Exchange gets French OK for LCH.Clearnet takeover
Luke Jeffs – Reuters
The London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) has won the backing of French regulators for its planned takeover of LCH.Clearnet, taking the LSE a step forward towards completing a deal which it has said will be transformative for its business.
jlne.ws/W3b5vp

NYSE Gaining Ground on Nasdaq in IPO Race
CHRIS DIETERICH – WSJ.com
Technology listings have long been the domain of the Nasdaq Stock Market, but a series of recent wins for the New York Stock Exchange has tightened the race for hosting tech-sector IPOs.
jlne.ws/W3b5vw

SEC Begins Formal Inquiry Into Knight Related to Computer Error
Bloomberg
Knight Capital Group Inc.’s $457.6 million trading error in August is the subject of a formal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
jlne.ws/W3b5LQ

It’s Déjà Vu for the Financial District
LAURA KUSISTO, CRAIG KARMIN and ELIOT BROWN – WSJ.com
Nearly two weeks after superstorm Sandy slammed into the New York region, about a third of the city’s financial district remains crippled, with no quick fixes in sight.
jlne.ws/W3b5LS

Greece Approves Austerity Budget in Bid for Foreign Aid
New York Times
The budget vote was widely regarded as a test of confidence in Greece’s shaky coalition after the narrow approval of a 17-billion-euro austerity and overhaul package for the next four years.
jlne.ws/W3b4ri

No aid tranche deal seen on Monday despite Greek austerity
Reuters via Yahoo! News
The euro zone will not release a new loan tranche to Greece on Monday despite the country’s tough 2013 budget as there is no agreement yet on how to make its debt sustainable, but Athens is set to get two more years to cut debt, officials said.
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Americans Say Europe Lesson Means Act Now as Austerity Will Fail
Bloomberg
When the housing bubble burst in 2006, U.S. policy makers looked to Japan for clues about what to do — and not do — in response. Now their attention is shifting to Europe as America gets set to follow that region with a concerted attack on its budget deficit.
jlne.ws/W3b5M0

In Greece, Taking Aim At Wealthy Tax Dodgers
LANDON THOMAS Jr. – NYTimes.com
As controversy swirls around the failure of former Greek finance ministers to investigate a list of 2,000 suspected tax dodgers, the current government in Athens is taking a hard look at the foreign assets of those people and thousands of others.
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Regulatory

Regulators Postpone Some Basel Rules
PETER EAVIS – NYTimes.com
United States regulators said Friday they were postponing a significant part of the financial regulatory overhaul after banks said they would not be ready for the new rules.
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SEC staffers used government computers for personal use: report
Reuters via Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON – Several U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staffers responsible for monitoring the markets and exchanges broadly misused computer equipment to download music and failed to properly safeguard sensitive information, a report has found.
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ESMA Appoints New Chairs To Standing Committees
The Board of Supervisors of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has appointed the following individuals to serve as chairs of its sectoral standing committees:
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“Sin-Orgy And Energy” – Address Of CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton To The Globalization And Energy Markets: Investment And Commodity Price Cycles Conference, James A. Baker III Institute For Public Policy, Rice University, Houston, Texas
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[NFA] Updated Self-Examination Questionnaire: For FCMs, FDMs, IBs, CPOs and CTAs
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[NFA] Updated Forex Transactions: A Regulatory Guide
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[ASIC] Updated investor guide for unlisted property schemes
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[ASIC] Millions of dollars waiting to be found
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Exchanges & Trading Facilities

NYSE Lets Floor Brokers Use Personal Phones
Laton McCartney – Traders Magazine
Brokers are being allowed to use their personal cell phones on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
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**CN: Exchange and market participants roll with difficult circumstances after Sandy.

**CN: Probably a good time to upgrade that service provider. I can’t even imagine trying to get service on the trading floor with my cell.

Cleartrade Exchange delivers unique liquidity through open API
Cleartrade Exchange, the leading OTC trading venue, is now live with an innovative solution enabling orders which are linked to an underlying commodity price to be automatically injected into the market. This unique development was successfully pioneered with lead broker member FIS and allows market-makers to enter, adjust, remove and trade multiple bunker fuel swap orders in real-time, resulting in a firm, two-way spread on two of CLTX’s three bunker contracts for the whole trading day.
jlne.ws/W3b4HN

Direct Edge Trading Notice #12-52: Industry-Wide Limit Up/Limit Down and Market-Wide Circuit Breaker Weekend Testing Beginning Saturday, January 12, 2013
jlne.ws/W3b6iN

TMX Group Limited Reports Results for the Third Quarter 2012
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TMX Group Limited Declares Dividend of $0.40 Per Common Share
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ASX Schools Sharemarket Game 2012 Winners
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Trader E-News
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Expansion of Short Term Option Series Program (Weekly Options)
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NYSE Group Inc. Issues Short Interest Report
jlne.ws/W3b4Ym

NASDAQ Announces End-of-Month Open Short Interest Positions in NASDAQ Stocks as of Settlement Date October 31, 2012
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NYSE MKT Issues Short Interest Report
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Burgundy: 50 % Of Trading In Swedish Equities On Alternative Marketplaces
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TOM MTF Statistics Week 45 2012
jlne.ws/W3b6zv

Athens Exchange Derivatives Market Monthly Statistical Bulletin October 2012
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Hellenic Exchanges Lapse Of The Right To The Dividend For Fiscal Year 2006
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Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

KKR Opens Funds Aimed at Private Investors
Henny Sender – Financial Times via CNBC
the private equity group immortalized as the Barbarian at the Gate—is launching two investment funds to be distributed to individuals by Charles Schwab, the US brokerage. It is the latest sign of the pressure on private equity firms to become more like traditional asset management firms.
jlne.ws/W3b7TX

Hedge fund bets on Greek recovery
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
The steep sell-off in Greek assets is tempting some investors – including hedge funds – to wager the crisis-hit country’s bond and stock markets offer a bargain.
jlne.ws/W3b6PX

Hedgies held ‘hostage’ by pirate Singer
New York Post
Caught in the battle between hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer and Argentina, some hedge funds complain that they are being held hostage. Bondholders who agreed to a 70 percent hit as part of Argentina’s debt restructuring are concerned they might not get paid all they are owed if Singer’s Elliott Management gets its way.
jlne.ws/W3b6PZ

Pressure mounts to defuse London’s pensions ‘time-bomb’
Mark Cobley – Financial News
Plans for a full or partial merger of London’s 34 council pension funds have come a step closer, following an academic review of the funds’ investment procedures that describes them as a “ticking time bomb”.
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Ex-retail analyst lays plans for fund launch
Matt Turner – Financial News
Matthew Truman, former head of the European food retail equity research team at Nomura and JP Morgan, is planning to launch a private equity fund focused on the consumer and retail sector, Financial News has learnt.
jlne.ws/W3b6Q6

MBIA Moves to Cure Its Crisis-Era Hangover
KATY BURNE And LIZ RAPPAPORT – Dow Jones
Bond insurer MBIA Inc. rolled out a new strategy to shore up its finances and said it is seeking a settlement with Bank of America Corp. over a web of lawsuits.
jlne.ws/W3b76m

Ovum Data Now Available To All Bloomberg Users – Telecommunication And Information Technology Industry Data Now On Bloomberg Industries Platform
jlne.ws/W3b76o

CFTC.Gov Commitments Of Traders Reports Update
jlne.ws/W3b8ao

Banks & Brokers

Questions Raised About Rochdale’s Clearing Process
By Alexandra Scaggs – Dow Jones
Investigators looking into an unauthorized billion-dollar trade at Rochdale Securities LLC are homing in on how such an unusually large “buy” order could have made it through the firm’s clearing process, according to people familiar with the investigations of regulators and other authorities into the matter.
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Goldman in settlement talks with U.S. over trading loss
Reuters
Goldman Sachs Group Inc is in settlement talks with the U.S. government over an $8.3 billion position that one of the investment bank’s traders had concealed five years ago, according to a published report.
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Goldman’s Entwistle to step down as Southeast Asia head: memo
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Hong Kong – The head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s Southeast Asian operations is set to step down and move to a new position as an advisory director for the bank at the end of the year, according to company memo obtained by Reuters.
jlne.ws/W3b8az

BNY Mellon to launch European brokerage business
Sophie Baker and Giles Turner – Financial News
BNY Mellon is launching a new European agency brokerage, a move into the sales and trading arena that places the custody bank in competition with bulge-bracket investment banks at the most competitive and tumultuous time for the industry in recent decades.
jlne.ws/W3b76y

ABI wades into the banking debate
Giles Turner and Mike Foster – Financial News
The Association of British Insurers, which has 300 members controlling £1.8 trillion of assets under management, is looking into the health of the UK banking sector and assessing whether it offers a worthwhile investment.
jlne.ws/W3b76C

Banks locked in a nosedive
William Wright – Financial News
If a fighter pilot’s aircraft goes into a tailspin he must conduct a counterintuitive set of manoeuvres in order to recover. Power is first reduced to idle and the ailerons (the flappy bits on the wing to you and me) are neutralised.
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Citigroup to pay former executives $15.5 million each
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Citigroup said it will pay $15.5 million to Vikram Pandit, its former chief executive who resigned from company last month, as well as to his top deputy. The bank said on Friday the payments to Pandit and former Chief Operating Officer John Havens reflect the progress the bank made in 2012 and work they did in some earlier years.
jlne.ws/W3b7mS

RBS Appoints UBS to Oversee Branch Sale-Report
Dow Jones
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC has restarted the process of selling the 316 banking branches rejected at the last minute by Banco Santander SA by appointing UBS AG to run the sale, the Sunday Telegraph reported without naming its sources.
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HSBC’s troubles mount with Jersey client probe
CNN Money
British banking giant HSBC has been accused of providing accounts on the island of Jersey for alleged drug dealers and gun runners.
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What does Griffin really want from ETrade?
By Joseph B. Cahill – Crain’s
Ken Griffin’s tortured relationship with online stock brokerage ETrade Financial Corp. grows more bizarre by the day. Since rescuing ETrade with a $2.5 billion bailout at the height of the financial crisis five years ago, Chicago’s biggest hedge-fund mogul has battled to control the firm’s direction.
jlne.ws/W3b7n2

Cantor Fitzgerald Names Second Head of Equities Trading
Traders Magazine
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. said it hired Charles Sweeney as a managing director and co-head of its U.S. equity trading division.
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Clearing & Settlement

Howell makes play for collateral gold rush
Michelle Price – Financial News
Euroclear has occupied the anonymous world of post-trade services for just over a decade, but its prominence – as with that of its peers – is growing as a result of regulatory reform.
jlne.ws/W3b7n5

LCH.Clearnet Offer Update
LCH.Clearnet Group Limited (“LCH.Clearnet”) announces that, further to the recommended cash offer by London Stock Exchange Group plc for a majority stake in LCH.Clearnet announced on 9 March 2012, letters of consent and statement of non-objection in respect of a change of control of LCH.Clearnet have been received from the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel and the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, respectively.

Banks Turned to Clearinghouses for Cash Amid Sandy Shutdown -ICE
By Jacob Bunge – Dow Jones
Wall Street banks at the height of superstorm Sandy sought to draw on cash reserves kept at one of the largest U.S. financial exchanges, raising questions over the elevated role clearinghouses play in the financial system.
jlne.ws/W3b8Hu

Trayport Introduces Complete – Its Suite Of Post-Trade Solutions
Trayport, a leading provider of energy trading solutions to traders, brokers and exchanges worldwide, today announced the first phase of Complete, its post-trade services solutions.
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CME Group Clearing Advisory: NYMEX Options Expiration Operational Procedures for the Trading Floor and Clearing Members (OS) Effective Monday, November 12, 2012
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CME Group Clearing Advisory: LSOC and CLIENT CONTACT INFORMATION
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CME Clearing – Performance Bond Requirements – Natural Gas Outrights; Refined Products Intra-Commodity Spread Charges; Nymex and Comex Volatility Scan Rates and Short Option Minimums – Effective Tuesday, November 13, 2012
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Clearing Advisory: CDS Liquidity Margin Methodology Change in New Release
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Indexes & Products

October Net New Asset Flows Into ETFs And ETPs Globally Were US$13.5 Billion, Down From The Previous Month’s Total Of US$40 Billion In September As Investors Face Increasing Political, Economic, Fiscal And Superstorm Sandy Impact Uncertainty
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RICI index adds NYSE Liffe’s robusta coffee and cocoa futures contracts
jlne.ws/W3b8XX

UUP: Large Outflows Detected at ETF
Looking today at week-over-week shares outstanding changes among the universe of ETFs covered at ETF Channel, one standout is the DB US Dollar Bullish Fund where we have detected an approximate $39.8 million dollar outflow — that’s a 4.6% decrease week over week.
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ETFGI Global ETF And ETP Industry Insights, October 2012
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Technology

UBS MTF First To Launch On FixSpec.com
FixSpec Ltd announced today that UBS MTF has become the first alternative trading venue to provide their members with an online, interactive version of the firm’s FIX specification via FixSpec.com.
jlne.ws/W3b8Y0

Enforcement

Missing At UBS Rogue Trader Trial, UBS Accountability
Forbes
Kweku Adoboli is truly sorry for what he did … you know, losing $2.3 billion of his employer’s money in bad trades. I do believe that he’s sorry. With his trial in London coming to a close, it is likely that he is going to be found guilty. After all, he does not dispute that what he did was wrong.
jlne.ws/W3baza

CFTC Charges Ex-Goldman Trader With Concealing $8.3 Billion E-Mini Trade
Dow Jones
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused a former trader at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. of defrauding his employer by intentionally concealing an $8.3 billion futures position that led to a realized loss of $118.4 million.
jlne.ws/W3bazd

SEC Charges Miami-Based Adviser with Hiding Trading Losses and Diverting Client Funds
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Miami-based investment adviser for defrauding his clients by concealing trading losses and diverting investor funds for personal use.
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[ASIC] Former financial adviser sentenced
jlne.ws/W3bazg

Environmental & Energy

White House says Obama is not planning a carbon tax proposal
The Hill’s E2 Wire
President Obama has no plans to propose a tax on carbon emissions, a White House official said.
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**RKB – Buzz follows HSBC analyst note on carbon tax included in E/E last week.

California’s Model Climate Policies Will Maintain Momentum in Obama Second Term
Inside Climate News
For decades, California has been the engine of growth behind America’s sputtering clean energy economy—adopting groundbreaking clean air and climate policies as federal efforts lagged behind.
jlne.ws/Z8YSd0

**RKB — Hopeful piece, followed by a little near-term market reality in news item below. Politics and rule uncertainty rarely make for good market.

California Carbon ‘Crippled’ by Buyer Hesitation: Energy Markets
Bloomberg
California carbon is trading at a record low as legal threats, political opposition and rule changes plague the days leading up to the first auction of permits under the state’s greenhouse-gas program.
jlne.ws/SEVykn

Asia-Pacific

Jefferies Expands Investment Banking and Capital Markets Platform in Asia
Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
Jefferies Group today announced the expansion of its Asia Investment Banking business with five new senior appointments who will be based in Hong Kong, the firm’s Asian headquarters.
jlne.ws/W3b8Ye

Xetra/FWB: New Study On Private Equity And Venture Capital Investments In China – Analysis Of PE/VC Investor Valuation Criteria With A View To Changed Market Conditions
A new study by Deutsche Börse and CMS Hasche Sigle analyses the valuation approaches applied to private sector investments in Chinese companies. This is already the second joint study on private equity in China. It is to be presented at the German Equity Forum in Frankfurt on Monday.
jlne.ws/W3b9es

Japanese investors hit back in China row
Ben McLannahan in Tokyo – FT.com
Individual investors in Japan are spurning Chinese assets, in an echo of the boycotts by Chinese consumers of Japanese products amid a territorial spat between Asia’s two largest economies.
jlne.ws/W3b9ez

China Construction Bank Chairman: Interest Rate Deregulation Poses Big Challenge to Banks
Dow Jones
China’s move to further liberalize its once-rigid interest-rate system poses a “huge challenge” to the country’s banks, Wang Hongzhang, chairman of China Construction Bank Corp., said Sunday.
jlne.ws/W3b9eD

China’s Banking Leaders Seek to Calm Concerns Over Revived Growth
New York Times
Chinese officials tried to allay concerns on Sunday that the country was allowing its banking system to grow at a reckless pace as a way to sustain short-term economic growth.
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The South Asian Federation Of Exchanges
The Annual General Assembly meeting of the South Asian Federation of Exchanges “SAFE” will be held on the margins of the African Securities Exchanges Association “ASEA” Annual Conference, hosted by the Egyptian Exchange “EGX” on the 2nd of December 2012.
jlne.ws/W3baPA

Tokyo Commodity Exchange: Good Delivery Material Price Differential For November 2012 Rubber Contract
jlne.ws/W3b9eJ

Osaka Securities Exchange: SPAN Parameter Updated (Nov. 19, 2012 – Nov. 22, 2012)
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Press Conference By Ikko Nakatsuka, Japan’s Minister For Financial Services
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HKFE Announces Revised Margins For Sinopec Corp And HKEx Futures
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Shanghai Stock Exchange: Capital Market to Take Off amid Sustained Economic Growth
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Singapore Government: Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) On The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)
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Frontier Markets

Final Frontier: Firms Flock to Newly Opened Myanmar
PATRICK BARTA – WSJ
For Tim Love, a vice chairman of advertising giant Omnicom Group, it was an opportunity too good to pass up: an entire country, off the map for most Western investors for decades, embracing foreign investment in a place with untapped energy resources and 60 million people.
jlne.ws/W3b9vc

IMF: Divergent Economic Performance Continues Across The Middle East
jlne.ws/W3b9vg

JSE To Launch Contracts-For-Difference
In response to market demand, the JSE today announced that it will launch a prototype Contract-For-Difference (CFD) instrument early next year.
jlne.ws/W3bb6e

Malawi Stock Exchange Weekly Trading Report
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