Electronic options market to open cash equity business in the third quarter.

According to TaraCapital’s summer barometer of European investors, demand for long/short equity strategies, particularly those offered by Japan and Europe funds, has fallen. More investors plan to reduce than increase their exposure to European long/short equities. Instead, investor appetite is growing for relative value, CTA and multi-strategy hedge funds.

73 the percentage of retail investors who expect the FTSE 100 to end the year higher than its present level, according to a survey conducted by share-trading website ADVFN.

Private equity firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) has taken a minority stake in multi-bank trading platform FXall for $77.5 million. FXall declined to reveal what percentage of the company this represents, but in February, Euromoney revealed that the company, established in 2000 by a consortium of 17 banks, was in discussions with private equity to sell a stake of between 25% and 30%.

Investors who might have hoped that their allocations to hedge funds would have provided some relief from falling equity markets in June must have been disappointed. The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index underperformed the broad equity market that month, falling 0.23 percentage points, a performance that was slightly worse than the 0.16 point fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the same period, and much worse than the 0.14 point rise in the S&P500.

About a third of sell-side analysts could lose their jobs over the next two years as fund managers do more of their own research and independent providers gain market share.

Keeps lucrative business and becomes an exchange with formal SEC approval.

What’s to be expected from a for-profit monopoly?

“I’d rather put needles in my eyes than give you a mandate!”

With the recent sell-off behind them, Japanese and eurozone equities look to be more attractive growth or defensive prospects than US stocks.

Summer began in style on July 13 as Euromoney hosted its annual Awards for Excellence Dinner in London.

Slovenia is set to become the first of the new EU member countries from central and eastern Europe to adopt the euro, after EU finance ministers cleared its entry. Slovenia will take up the currency on January 1 2007, bringing the number of eurozone countries to 13. An exchange rate of Tr239.64 to the euro has been set.

SuperDerivatives, an online provider of option pricing, trading and risk management, is expanding its pricing capabilities on Latin American interest-rate derivatives products, a move that should help boost liquidity in these instruments. The firm has already rolled out its platform for Mexico and Brazil, and Chile and Argentina are next on the list.

Grupo Santander, winner of Euromoney’s award for best bank in Latin America, has revealed plans to double its Latin American banking business with a $4 billion investment over the next three years. The region is a cash cow for Santander, which realized $787 million of profits in the first quarter, a 47% increase.

If international football teams performed according to economic criteria, one from the eurozone would not necessarily come out on top.

The development of Latin America’s local capital markets continues apace following the first bond issue by a multilateral organization in Venezuela in 30 years. The bond, worth B215 billion ($100 million) and with a five-year maturity, was launched last month by CAF, the Andean development bank. It is the biggest non-government bond issued in Venezuela.

Further welcome signs that Asia’s real estate investment trust investors are getting more choosy arose in July when Cambridge Industrial Trust relaunched its stalled IPO in Singapore with an enhanced yield to persuade punters to subscribe.

Anyone investing in private equity now is making a bet that the business cycle has been abolished. Caveat emptor.

Mexico will issue its first 30-year peso-denominated bond in Q4, reflecting renewed confidence in the Mexican economy. Initially an auction of Ps1 billion ($92 million) is planned.

Dubai Investment Group subsidiary Dubai Financial has bought a 40% stake in Malaysia’s oldest Shariah-compliant bank, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd (BIMB) – the group’s largest single investment in the Asian financial sector to date.

Transelectrica is the country’s first utility to IPO.

By Zach Fuchs

Bahrain is experiencing a mutual fund boom, according to the Bahrain Monetary Authority, which says assets under management by BMA-authorized mutual funds have grown by 55% to $8.3 billion in the past year.

The latest GDP figures from China make startling reading. First-half 2006 GDP grew 10.9%, with second-quarter growth accelerating to 11.2%, the fastest pace since 2003 when China’s economy last overheated. The news has reignited concerns that China’s economy is out of control.

G8 debt relief package will not constrain issuance plans.

Despite a downturn in emerging markets, Latin American companies are eager to tap the developing hybrid securities market to raise money to recapitalize their balance sheets without affecting their credit ratings or causing equity dilution.

You always need seat 1A, unless you’ve got a private jet. Your hotel room has to be just so. You’ve got a British Airways black card. Then you’re a travel diva, as Abigail Hofman knows only too well.

Norway’s export credit agency, Eksportfinans, was the first issuer to take advantage of the Russian government’s decision to make the rouble fully convertible from July 1, selling a R1.5 billion ($558 million) rouble-linked Eurobond less than a week later.

The results of Euromoney’s inaugural structured credit poll provide an invaluable insight into what is often an impenetrable sector of the capital markets.

Almost non-existent a decade ago, Peru’s capital markets have flourished over the past five years, with the government and big companies such as US copper miner Phelps Dodge finding ample demand for bonds. Now the new government of president Alan García, which took office on July 28, aims to develop the markets further. There are plans to allow smaller companies to raise cash, develop a secondary mortgage market to unleash new funds to redevelop slums, and encourage pension funds to invest in productive industries, not just in sovereign bonds. “Deepening the local market in soles is going to be one of the pillars of our economic policy,” says García’s chief economic aide, Enrique Cornejo. “Our resources aren’t being put to work via the markets.” The barriers to smaller Peruvian businesses are daunting. Because many companies cannot meet the listing requirements of the Bolsa de Valores de Lima, Peru has launched only four initial public offerings with a total value of $40 million in the past 15 years, despite strong economic growth. The business sector is severely undercapitalized, with a total of $7.5 billion in debts, or around 10% of Peru’s GDP. A change in that situation is crucial to Peru’s long-term development, as small and medium-size companies generate 40% of GDP and three-quarters of all jobs in the country. However, these companies’ financing costs are up to 2.5 times those of big corporations.