Australian Stock Exchange ASX Monthly Activity Report for October 2008
2008-11-05 09:10:00+10:00
Australian Stock Exchange [ASX:ASX] has announced details of a Buy Back, Dividend or New Issue. The notice entitled 'ASX Monthly Activity Report for October 2008' was published on Wednesday 05 November 2008. Australian Stock Exchange has issued similar announcements 37 times before, most recently about 0 minutes ago on Thursday 06 December 2007. [Notice Type: Share Buyback, Special Dividend, Issue, or Capital Return]
2008-11-05 09:10:00+10:00
Australian Stock Exchange [ASX:ASX] has announced details of a Buy Back, Dividend or New Issue. The notice entitled 'ASX Monthly Activity Report for October 2008' was published on Wednesday 05 November 2008. Australian Stock Exchange has issued similar announcements 37 times before, most recently about 0 minutes ago on Thursday 06 December 2007. [Notice Type: Share Buyback, Special Dividend, Issue, or Capital Return]
ASX Monthly Activity Report for October 2008
Wednesday 05 Nov 2008
MARKET ANNOUNCEMENT
5 November 2008
ASX Monthly Activity Report - October 2008
While October 2008 marked another month of subdued primary listing activity on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), secondary capital raising activity rose significantly due to an increase in placements and entitlement issues, and dividend reinvestment plan offers. This included the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s $2 billion accelerated institutional placement of new equity to fund the acquisition of BankWest and St Andrew’s Australia. Trade execution volumes remained buoyant, despite the ongoing consequences of the interim ban on short selling of equity securities and the consequences for the interest rate futures market of the dislocation in the short-term money market pursuant to Government arrangements to guarantee bank deposits. ASX’s trading, clearing and settlement systems provided market users with reliable uptime availability throughout a month of near-record equity price volatility, and heightened short-term money market and currency uncertainty. In an environment of elevated counterparty risk consciousness ASX also made adjustments, as required, to its operational and risk management procedures to ensure market orderliness, and clearing and settlement facility integrity. Listings and capital raisings • • In October 2008 there were 3 entities admitted for listing, compared to 19 in the previous corresponding period (pcp). Total listed entities at 31 October 2008 were 2,2301, up 4% on the 2,143 as at 31 October 2007. Total capital raised in October 2008 amounted to $6.8 billion, up 51% on the pcp, comprising $185 million in initial raisings, up 3% on pcp, and $6.7 billion in secondary raisings, up 53% on pcp.
Trading – Cash markets (including equities, interest rates and warrants trades) Historically high price volatility characterised the equity market in early October 2008. Since the ban on short selling was introduced on 21 September 2008 orders and trades in the cash market have reduced by approximately 13% and 5.5%, respectively, although on a financial year-to-date comparison these declines are offset by significant volume growth overall. ASX is working to put in place systems changes to support the real-time tagging of short sale orders and the daily reporting of all short trades, consistent with the direction outlined in its policy position paper of 2 October 2008 and with ASIC’s subsequent market announcement of 28 October 2008. • • • Total cash market trades for October 2008 were 9.9 million, up 40% on the pcp, notwithstanding the short-term ban on short selling and current investor sentiment. Average daily trades of 429,527 were also 40% up on the pcp. Total cash market traded value was $105.4 billion in October 2008, down 28% on the pcp, with a daily average value of $4.6 billion, also down 28% on the pcp. The All Ordinaries index fell 13% during the month of October 2008 and was 41% lower than at the end of October 2007.
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Entities include companies and trusts with quoted equities (including individual entities that trade as stapled securities) and also other entities with debt securities only.
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In October 2008 the average value per trade was $10,672, down 48% on the pcp ($20,706 pcp), and the percentage of traded value crossed was 25% (27% pcp).
ASX market participants are being advised today of a number of equity market improvements scheduled to become operational during the first half of calendar year 2009, subject to formal regulatory clearance from ASIC. These are designed to keep ASX at the forefront of contemporary trade execution service offerings and include: • Upgrades to trading and downstream systems capacity and latency (consistent with the capital expenditure guidance for FY09 disclosed in ASX’s 2008 Annual Report); co-location hosting arrangements; operating rules changes; additional order type functionality; and a new large order trade facilitation service offering.
The relevant notice to ASX market participants will be available here: www.asx.com.au Trading - Derivatives markets The exchange-traded options (ETO) market experienced traded volume growth of approximately 5% during October 2008 compared to the financial year-to-date monthly average to September-end 2008. This is to be expected, given the high volatility present in individual stocks during October. SPI 200 index futures contract volumes have been strong and continue to facilitate significant price discovery. Index arbitrage has ensured that the pricing correlation between the SPI 200 index futures contract and the physical index has remained relatively consistent since the short selling ban was introduced. The loss of confidence and heightened uncertainty that prevailed in the Australian money market during October meant that prices in many over-the-counter interest rate products were difficult to obtain. This impacted an already reduced flow of hedge-related and speculative activity into the interest rate futures markets, stemming from increased volatility driving VaR models for both banks and hedge funds, as well as lower A$ currency-related demand. The unexpected size of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate reduction on 7 October led to a spike in trading volume and high volatility, with yield reductions further accelerated by the continuing flight to quality to short-term Government securities. • • Equity derivatives volume (excluding SPI 200) for October 2008 was 1.8 million contracts, down 16% on the pcp, with a daily average of 79,754 contracts, also down 16% on pcp. Total futures and options on futures contracts volume (excluding equity derivatives and CFDs) for October 2008 was 5.3 million, down 8% on the pcp, with a notional value of $2.2 trillion. Average daily contracts volume during October 2008 of 229,260 was also down 8% on the pcp. This is principally due to much lower bank bill futures volumes during the second half of October. The announcement on 12 October of the unlimited bank deposit guarantee created uncertainty about the homogeneity of the pool of physical short-term bank-issued paper that underlies the bank bill futures contracts. This added to the difficulty in accurately valuing these contracts. The Government’s clarifying announcement on 24 October on the deposit and wholesale funding guarantees resulted in a moderate reversal of this effect, with the three nearest listed ...
Wednesday 05 Nov 2008
MARKET ANNOUNCEMENT
5 November 2008
ASX Monthly Activity Report - October 2008
While October 2008 marked another month of subdued primary listing activity on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), secondary capital raising activity rose significantly due to an increase in placements and entitlement issues, and dividend reinvestment plan offers. This included the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s $2 billion accelerated institutional placement of new equity to fund the acquisition of BankWest and St Andrew’s Australia. Trade execution volumes remained buoyant, despite the ongoing consequences of the interim ban on short selling of equity securities and the consequences for the interest rate futures market of the dislocation in the short-term money market pursuant to Government arrangements to guarantee bank deposits. ASX’s trading, clearing and settlement systems provided market users with reliable uptime availability throughout a month of near-record equity price volatility, and heightened short-term money market and currency uncertainty. In an environment of elevated counterparty risk consciousness ASX also made adjustments, as required, to its operational and risk management procedures to ensure market orderliness, and clearing and settlement facility integrity. Listings and capital raisings • • In October 2008 there were 3 entities admitted for listing, compared to 19 in the previous corresponding period (pcp). Total listed entities at 31 October 2008 were 2,2301, up 4% on the 2,143 as at 31 October 2007. Total capital raised in October 2008 amounted to $6.8 billion, up 51% on the pcp, comprising $185 million in initial raisings, up 3% on pcp, and $6.7 billion in secondary raisings, up 53% on pcp.
Trading – Cash markets (including equities, interest rates and warrants trades) Historically high price volatility characterised the equity market in early October 2008. Since the ban on short selling was introduced on 21 September 2008 orders and trades in the cash market have reduced by approximately 13% and 5.5%, respectively, although on a financial year-to-date comparison these declines are offset by significant volume growth overall. ASX is working to put in place systems changes to support the real-time tagging of short sale orders and the daily reporting of all short trades, consistent with the direction outlined in its policy position paper of 2 October 2008 and with ASIC’s subsequent market announcement of 28 October 2008. • • • Total cash market trades for October 2008 were 9.9 million, up 40% on the pcp, notwithstanding the short-term ban on short selling and current investor sentiment. Average daily trades of 429,527 were also 40% up on the pcp. Total cash market traded value was $105.4 billion in October 2008, down 28% on the pcp, with a daily average value of $4.6 billion, also down 28% on the pcp. The All Ordinaries index fell 13% during the month of October 2008 and was 41% lower than at the end of October 2007.
1
Entities include companies and trusts with quoted equities (including individual entities that trade as stapled securities) and also other entities with debt securities only.
1
•
In October 2008 the average value per trade was $10,672, down 48% on the pcp ($20,706 pcp), and the percentage of traded value crossed was 25% (27% pcp).
ASX market participants are being advised today of a number of equity market improvements scheduled to become operational during the first half of calendar year 2009, subject to formal regulatory clearance from ASIC. These are designed to keep ASX at the forefront of contemporary trade execution service offerings and include: • Upgrades to trading and downstream systems capacity and latency (consistent with the capital expenditure guidance for FY09 disclosed in ASX’s 2008 Annual Report); co-location hosting arrangements; operating rules changes; additional order type functionality; and a new large order trade facilitation service offering.
The relevant notice to ASX market participants will be available here: www.asx.com.au Trading - Derivatives markets The exchange-traded options (ETO) market experienced traded volume growth of approximately 5% during October 2008 compared to the financial year-to-date monthly average to September-end 2008. This is to be expected, given the high volatility present in individual stocks during October. SPI 200 index futures contract volumes have been strong and continue to facilitate significant price discovery. Index arbitrage has ensured that the pricing correlation between the SPI 200 index futures contract and the physical index has remained relatively consistent since the short selling ban was introduced. The loss of confidence and heightened uncertainty that prevailed in the Australian money market during October meant that prices in many over-the-counter interest rate products were difficult to obtain. This impacted an already reduced flow of hedge-related and speculative activity into the interest rate futures markets, stemming from increased volatility driving VaR models for both banks and hedge funds, as well as lower A$ currency-related demand. The unexpected size of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate reduction on 7 October led to a spike in trading volume and high volatility, with yield reductions further accelerated by the continuing flight to quality to short-term Government securities. • • Equity derivatives volume (excluding SPI 200) for October 2008 was 1.8 million contracts, down 16% on the pcp, with a daily average of 79,754 contracts, also down 16% on pcp. Total futures and options on futures contracts volume (excluding equity derivatives and CFDs) for October 2008 was 5.3 million, down 8% on the pcp, with a notional value of $2.2 trillion. Average daily contracts volume during October 2008 of 229,260 was also down 8% on the pcp. This is principally due to much lower bank bill futures volumes during the second half of October. The announcement on 12 October of the unlimited bank deposit guarantee created uncertainty about the homogeneity of the pool of physical short-term bank-issued paper that underlies the bank bill futures contracts. This added to the difficulty in accurately valuing these contracts. The Government’s clarifying announcement on 24 October on the deposit and wholesale funding guarantees resulted in a moderate reversal of this effect, with the three nearest listed ...
