Latest: Tesla investors still going strong with Elon Musk despite Twitter

The deal has prompted speculation about how the billionaire will fund the all cash acquisition with claims he may sell stock in Tesla or SpaceX. Despite securing US$7bn backing from new investors for its Twitter deal, Tesla shares have fallen heavily recently dropping 12.2% and wiping more than US$125 billion off its value.

GraniteShares data shows Tesla investors are still supportive however as the firm’s 3x Long Tesla Daily ETP is the best performing US long ETP gaining 4.6% in the past week, and 36.57% in the past month.

Sophisticated investors believe there is a strong future for Tesla - Will Rhind, GraniteShares

Other top performing long ETPs in the UK and Europe respectively were Lloyds Bank +3x Lloyds Bank up 7.3% and Danone +3x Danone up 14.2%. The best performing short ETPS were Rio Tinto in the UK -3x Rio Tinto up 29.6%, Netflix in the US 3x Netflix up 119% and ENI in Europe 3x Eni up 13.3%.

‘Sophisticated investors believe there is a strong future for Tesla no matter how the Twitter acquisition impacts on its CEO’s finances or time,’ said Will Rhind (pictured), Founder and CEO of GraniteShares

GraniteShares offers a total of 106 exchange traded products (ETPs) listed on national exchanges in UK, France, Italy & Germany.

Julius Baer expands warrants offering to deriBX

Julius Baer and BX Swiss have signed an agreement under which Julius Baer will now also trade leveraged products as a market maker on the exchange’s structured products platform deriBX.

The bank’s markets team has issued the first warrants on deriBX on a number of of stocks and equity indices from Switzerland, Europe and the US. The bank said it will expand the leveraged products range further in the coming months.

‘The partnership with BX Swiss is another step in our efforts to provide innovative solutions and services to our clients and investors via professional platforms,’ said Luigi Vignola, Head Markets Julius Baer. 

"With our deriBX segment, we offer investors a steadily growing range of exchange-traded structured products. With Julius Baer, we welcome another well-known issuer as a market maker on deriBX and gain a valuable partner in our constantly growing ecosystem," said Lucas Bruggeman, CEO of BX Swiss.

Aussie regulator seeks to improve investment products offering

On 26 April, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) released the phase one of a public consultation paper “Enhancing the ASX Investment Products Offering”, which proposes to integrate three rules books for investment product offering.

The offering currently comprises exchange traded funds (ETFs), managed funds and structured products quoted on ASX under schedule 10A of the ASX Operating Rules; listed investment companies (LICs), listed investment trusts (LITs), real estate investment trusts (REITs) and infrastructure funds listed and quoted on ASX under the ASX Listing Rules; warrants quoted on ASX under schedule 10 of the ASX Operating Rules.

‘ASX can see merit in bringing these different rules into closer alignment for the benefit of both investors and issuers,’ said the bourse. The consultation, which is open for comments till 24 June, covers policy issues including admission requirements, investment mandates, portfolio disclosure. The phase two is set to be released in early 2023 and the financial changes will be announced in mid-late 2023 with a view to them coming into effect no earlier than 1 January 2024.

FIA double digit growth propels Q1 annuity sales, Rilas level off

Total U.S. annuity sales increased 4% to US$63.6 billion, according to preliminary results from the Secure Retirement Institute (SRI) US Individual Annuity Sales Survey.

“First quarter annuity sales tend to be a bit slower. While sales in the first two months of 2022 were a bit sluggish, annuity sales in March were at record-high levels^*,” said Todd Giesing, assistant vice president, SRI Annuity Research. “Rising interest rates and increased market volatility shifted the product mix this quarter with fixed annuity products driving the overall growth.”

Total fixed annuity sales were $35.2 billion, up 14% over first quarter 2021. Double-digit growth for fixed indexed annuities and fixed-rate deferred annuities drove the overall fixed annuity sales to pre-pandemic levels.

Fixed indexed annuity (FIA) sales were $16.3 billion, 21% higher than prior year. Fixed-rate deferred annuity sales increased 10% in the first quarter, year-over-year to $16 billion.

‘Both FIAs and fixed-rate deferred products benefited from the significant interest rate increases in the first quarter,’ said Todd Giesing, assistant vice president, SRI Annuity Research. ‘Coupled with a nearly 5% equity market decline, investors sought out principal protection and steady growth, which these products offer.’

Traditional variable annuity (VA) sales were $19.1 billion in the first quarter, down 8% year-over-year.  

Registered index-linked annuity (Rila) sales were $9.3 billion. While this is two percent higher than first quarter 2021, it reflects a 10% drop from the previous quarter.

‘Market conditions in the first quarter have made FIAs more attractive than Rilas. As a result, the remarkable growth Rilas experienced over the past three years has leveled off,’ said Giesing.

SIX trading activity falls

Switzerland’s principal exchange has experienced a sharp decline in trading activities for April 2022, according to its latest report.

The Swiss Stock Exchange saw bleak trading results with volumes aggregating to CHF106.5 billion (US$108.2 billion), the lowest so far this year in terms of both trading turnover and number of transactions.

Trading activity on SIX Swiss Exchange also stabilised in 2022 as volatility dropped to levels below the extraordinary peaks of 2021 which triggered record volumes at the exchange.

According to the report, trading turnover at SIX’s venues, including on SIX Structured Products Exchange, had a combined nominal value of less than CHF109 billion, at today’s rates, in April. This figure was down four percent from CHF117.4 billion in February 2022.

In terms of the total number of transactions, the exchange reported 4.83 million trades, also a loss of 37% month-on-month compared to 5.76 million transactions reported for March 2022. The exchange’s volume was also lower by six percent relative to 5.48 million in the same month of last year.

The highest turnover on a single trading day was recorded on 06 April, which saw securities worth a total volume of CHF 9.7 billion changing hands. The highest number of trades was also recorded on 27 April, with 290,643.

The SMI index declined by 0.3% and reached 12,128.8 points at the end of the month.