NYSE will keep the floor alive having introduced electronic trading; critics say floor traders will soon be swamped.

Private equity has emerged a clear winner from stock market volatility in the Middle East – a large number of funds were set up as a result. But is there a risk of a bubble developing in this market too? Kathryn Wells finds out.

Strange market conditions prevail as companies face investors that are spoilt for choice and hedge funds that are increasingly cautious.

In two new reports, TowerGroup makes the easy prediction that daily volumes in FX will soon surpass $3 trillion. But making sense of whether the market will consolidate has proved harder to predict for the consultancy firm.

As recently as May this year, following the two 25 basis point increases of December 2005 and March 2006 that raised the European Central Bank’s main refinancing rate to 2.5%, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet was speaking of the “still very low levels of nominal and real interest rates across the whole maturity spectrum”.

It’s easy to see why Brian Hunter of Amaranth notoriety – and so many others – were caught long of natural gas. The prices of natural gas have risen dramatically since 2000. But how much of that increase has been due to underlying supply and demand?

Citigroup is paying $3.1 billion for a 20% stake in Akbank, the country’s largest privately owned bank, just months after losing the battle to buy Finansbank. National Bank of Greece was the victor in that sale.

The increased use of ever more powerful computers in the financial markets is having an unexpected effect on Canary Wharf, London’s supposedly modern, high-tech business location.

“Another pandemic or a large event risk such as a full-scale ground war, or various nuclear bombs exploding in large cities in any of the three countries would cause a loss for the noteholders”

Abu Dhabi Energy Company (Taqa) has sold a $3.5 billion equivalent debut bond, containing a €750 million seven-year tranche, a $1 billion 10-year tranche and a $1.5 billion 30-year portion, making it the largest ever straight bond from the Middle East.

Freddie Mac withdraws liquidity from the euro market.

Euronext.liffe makes an attempt to regain a foothold in derivative futures trading at the long end of the European bond curve this month when it launches a new range of bond futures based on the whole eurozone and the largest eurozone countries – Germany, France and Italy.

Singapore smog worst in ten years

“We’ve got samurais, kangaroos and bulldogs – now what we really need is a name for all these bonds coming out of Kazakhstan...”

European issuers tapping the US capital market are increasingly using the extendible note market. They are driven by a need for liquid markets and relatively low appetite for the regulatory complications involved with 144a SEC registration

The City of Moscow’s Sergei Pakhomov hopes that full rouble convertibility will offer a way around restrictive legislation that governs municipal issuance in Russia.

As the unremittingly positive attitude of investors and analysts towards Vietnam just seems to get even more positive, capital raising for new fund launches is rising fast.

Bank of New York has launched a new website offering “enhanced FX research and analysis capabilities, including detailed data on cross-border investment trends, daily FX commentary, in-depth examination of economic news and central bank decisions, as well as coverage of daily worldwide events that affect currency, equity and fixed income markets”.

Fitch Ratings has launched a wholly owned subsidiary devoted to the credit derivatives sector.

After the defection of three of its key FX staff to Merrill Lynch, Dresdner Kleinwort has acted quickly to try to instil some stability into the business unit.

Model can help to attract new investors to asset class.

Banks jostle for league table positions as volumes show no sign of letting up.

The market has coped well with debut deals from Sweden, the UK, Norway and Portugal; more are imminent.

SOME 50,000 small- and medium-size companies in Chile will benefit from a proposed new law that will make it much easier for companies to switch bank lender, according to banking experts.

Latin America’s bankers take note. If Gaetan Bucher has his way, within four years they will be living and working in the Dominican Republic (DR).

Spotted on hedge fund website Albourne Village’s ordinarily sensible and informative Residents’ Questions Board:

Electronic trading of Japanese government bonds will account for half of the inter-dealer market by the end of 2006, according to estimates in a report published by research firm Celent.

Despite reasonably supportive market conditions, a record level of M&A, and confident predictions from investment bankers, the volume of new convertibles issuance in Europe over the past four months has dropped to a trickle.

Malaysia’s government-linked companies are at a crossroads. All are embarking on reform but are they moving quickly enough? Sudip Roy reports from Kuala Lumpur.

Regulators hope to repeat their success in reforming practices in the credit derivatives market.