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Reuters – In spite of suffering more than most markets in the global downturn, hedge funds are likely to bounce back faster than other markets.
That is the view of Barclay’s Capital director Frank Gerhard whose company is a major player in the regional hedge fund market and is in the process of launching a Sharia-compliant hedge fund platform along with Sharia Capital.
"We have been running a roadshow around the region and there is still a lot of institutional and high net worth individual interest in the sector.
"What we are likely to see is hedge funds bouncing back in the first quarter of next year even if equity markets remain depressed.
"Each time there is a major market downturn, like the Asia crisis of 1998 or the slump after the dotcom bubble burst, we have seen alternative investments like hedge funds bounce back far quicker than other investments.
Proactive Investors Australia – Why have investors been selling UK-listed coal miners – even the big boys like Xstrata, Rio and BHP Billiton – as if they were going out of fashion?
Lack of understanding of the global market for the black stuff is probably the key reason. Gloom and doom has hit the commodity markets in the last three months, culminating in almost catastrophic price falls in some metals over the last 2-3 weeks. Steelmakers are cutting output. Car manufacturers are suffering from slumping sales. Nickel mines are closing and PGM miners are losing money hand over fist as metal prices have been driven down and down and down to ridiculous levels…even gold, that safe haven in times of trouble, is some 30% down from the $1000+ level hit earlier this year.
But coal’s different, surely? Falling steel output does not immediately bring about a slump in the demand for coking coal, and a concomitant drop in price, because most coal producers sell the majority of their product under contract, to a fixed price decided annually by negotiation with their customers. Unlike nickel or platinum or copper, there is virtually no spot market in coal, and thus no opportunity for “investors” – the polite name for the speculative hedge funds who drive today’s metal markets – to manipulate the price for their own profit. The coal producers enjoy fixed prices until at least next March, and will continue to supply contracted tonnages of coal.
Telegraph.co.uk – A move by US and European central banks, as well as by central banks in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea, to slash borrowing costs has failed to reassure investors.
"It’s impossible to predict the bottom, and technical analysis is meaningless as panic and fear overwhelm the markets," said Jang Huh, at Prudential Asset Management in Seoul.
Japan’s Nikkei stock index fell 10pc, the biggest loss since “Black Monday” in October 1987 and it third biggest loss ever. The index, which closed down 881.06 points at 8,276.43, has lost more than 24pc over the past week.
Prime Minister Taro Aso warned that the slump could have real effects on Asia’s largest economy. The share price fall “has reached a point where it affects the real economy and fund raising,” he told reporters.
All indications are that European markets will open sharply lower.
Reuters – On Main Street, insurance protects people from the effects of catastrophes.
But on Wall Street, specialized insurance known as a credit default swaps are turning a bad situation into a catastrophe.
When historians write about the current crisis, much of the blame will go to the slump in the housing and mortgage markets, which triggered the losses, layoffs and liquidations sweeping the financial industry.
But credit default swaps — complex derivatives originally designed to protect banks from deadbeat borrowers — are adding to the turmoil.
"This was supposedly a way to hedge risk," says Ellen Brown, the author of the book "Web of Debt."
Bloomberg – Lone Pine Capital LLC, run by Stephen Mandel, and Traxis Partners LLC are among 56 overseas funds that registered to buy shares in India in July, the most in six months, betting on a recovery in stocks.
Helios Capital Management Pte and Stonewater Capital LLC also won approval from the nation’s regulator, nine months after authorities forced hedge funds to register. The Securities & Exchange Board of India will review those rules in Mumbai today.
India’s stock market recovered its $1 trillion in market value last month, helped by the biggest drop in commodity prices in 28 years. The new funds may help reverse record sales of stocks by overseas investors that led to the biggest first-half slump in the Sensitive Index since its 1979 creation.
