MARKET NEWS
SOCGEN OFFERS NINE NEW WARRANTS
This week saw the launch of nine new covered warrants from Societe Generale. Four are cocoa call warrants; the rest are divided between two dollar-Swiss franc put warrants that expire in December and three copper put warrants. Meanwhile, RBS Markets has launched two new products: one is the UK Accelerated Tracker 4, which offers investors a 4.5 times return on rises of the FTSE 100 up to a cap. The other, the UK Synthetic Zero, gives a 9.25 per cent return provided the FTSE 100 stays 50 per cent above its start date level on every valuation and observation date.
BANKS AND TELECOMS FAVOURED
The largest sector inflows among STOXX Europe 600 exchange-traded funds (ETF) last week were in banks, at $150.9m, and telecoms at $98.2m. The largest outflows came from industrial goods and services, which saw $44.2m leave ETFs in this sector, and utilities, which lost $26.3m. So far this month, banks, basic resources and food & beverages have seen the largest inflows at $124.9m, $119.5m and $108.2m respectively. The largest outflows in July were from media and oil & gas ETFs, at $41.7m and $54m respectively.
HEDGE FUND ETF GETS THE GO-AHEAD
The Financial Services Authority has approved the release of a managed futures ETF offered by Liechtenstein-based hedge fund Qbasis. The fund will give investors access to the same investment strategy as practiced by Qbasis’ offshore managed futures hedge fund, but will charge an extra fee and have a minimum investment of €2,000 versus $100,000 for the hedge fund. Qbasis is now free to begin procedures for listing the fund on the London Stock Exchange, having already listed it on the Hamburg stock exchange in April.