Latest: UK’s first retail ESG-linked deposit and more

The FTSE4Good 6 Year Deposit Plan 1 is a six-year fixed term deposit plan tied to the FTSE4Good UK 50, an index made up of the largest 50 companies in the FTSE which meet defined ESG criteria.

At maturity, the product returns 18% (equivalent to three percent per annum) if the FTSE4Good UK 50 is higher at maturity than at its starting level. If the index is lower than or equal to the starting value, the investor only gets back his or her initial deposit.

The product is part of Investec’s 100th launch, marking 12 years in which Investec has offered consistently available deposit plans and investment plans, with 1,175 matured products and no capital loss.

‘Over the course of 100 launches, we have constantly focused on improving every aspect of our products to set new standards for the industry,’ commented Harris Gorre (pictured), Investec’s head of financial products. ‘Our clients can achieve interest rates 2-3 times greater than in cash while investing in products that improve the world around them.’

Responding to an independent survey of retail investors carried out on behalf of Investec in April 2020, more than half (51%) of respondents felt that sustainable investing was important to them.

MV Index Solutions acquires BlueStar Indexes

MV Index Solutions GmbH (MVIS) has acquired BlueStar Indexes (BlueStar), a research-driven provider of indices and financial data focused on serving the needs of innovative ETF issuers, index fund sponsors and asset managers around the world.

The acquisition brings together operations and staff in Frankfurt, New York, Tel Aviv and San Francisco, and an experienced management team with an average of 20 years of index industry experience. The company will have more than $18 billion in licensed product assets tracking its combined index family, with clients in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia, and will continue to use both the MVIS and BlueStar brands. Some of the benchmarks maintained by the firm include the MVIS Junior Gold Miners Index, the BlueStar Israel Global Technology Index, the MVIS US-Listed Semiconductor 25 Index, the BlueStar 5G Communications Index, and the MVIS CryptoCompare Institutional Bitcoin Index.

MVIS is based in Frankfurt, Germany and was founded in 2011 as a wholly-owned affiliate of Van Eck Associates Corporation (Van Eck). BlueStar, launched in 2011 by Steven Schoenfeld, maintains more than 30 indexes, with approximately $1 billion in assets tracking its indexes.

Spectrum hits milestone: 200 million traded securitised derivatives

Spectrum Markets has exceeded 200 million traded securitised derivatives since its launch in October 2019 – only three months after it reached 100 million traded securitised derivatives in April 2020. In July, 38.1 million securitised derivatives were traded, a 7.9% increase over the previous month. Spectrum Markets has increased its trading volume for the 10th consecutive month of full trading.

The breakdown of trading volume of securitised derivatives in July is as follows: 87.7% is attributable to indices (June: 81.7%), 7% to FX (11.5%) and 5.3% to commodities (6.8%).

The top traded underlyings were Dax with a share of 22.4%, followed by the S&P 500 with 19.4% and the OMX with a share of 18.7%.

Spectrum Markets is a pan-European marketplace where retail investors can invest in structured products via their brokers. From its launch, trading has been available in ten countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland, Finland, and Belgium.

DWS extends ESG product range

DWS has extended its ESG product range with the launch of Xtrackers II ESG EUR Corporate Bond Short Duration Ucits ETF.

The euro-denominated ETF tracks the Bloomberg Barclays MSCI Euro Corporate Sustainable & SRI 0-5 Year Index. It complements sister fund Xtrackers II ESG EUR Corporate Bond Ucits ETF, which is based on the same bond index family, and five equity ETFs based on MSCI ESG indices.

The fund is a direct, physical replication ETF. It began trading on the London Stock Exchange on 28 July and Germany’s Xetra on 3 August, and will also list on Switzerland’s Six exchange. An all-in fee of 0.16% applies.

Boerse Stuttgart reports 39% increase in turnover

Boerse Stuttgart generated turnover of around €8.6 billion ($10.1 billion) in July 2020 – an increase of around 39% compared to the same month of the previous year.

Securitised derivatives made up the largest share of the turnover. The trading volume in this asset class was over €3.7 billion – nearly 38% more than in July 2019. Leverage products generated turnover of around €2.9 billion and investment products contributed around €834m to the total turnover.

According to the order book, trading in equities produced turnover of around €2.4 billion – around 82% more than in July 2019. German equities contributed over €1.1 billion to this total and international equities over €1.2 billion.

Turnover from exchange-traded products (ETPs) was around €1.5 billion – an increase of over 46% compared to July 2019. Investment fund units contributed around €160 million to the July total.

The monthly total for trading in debt instruments (bonds) was around €854m. At €506m, the lion’s share of turnover in this asset class was attributable to corporate bonds.

Six trading down 22.1% month-on-month

In July 2020 trading turnover on the Swiss Stock Exchange was down 22.1% compared to the previous month and reached CHF119.3 billion ($130.7 billion), while the number of transactions decreased by 14.5% to a total of 7,364,635. In comparison with the corresponding period last year, trading turnover was up by 37.1% to reach CHF 1,140.1 billion, while the number of trades rose by 90.6% to a total of 63,783,393.

The highest turnover on a single trading day was recorded on 14 July, which saw securities worth a total volume of CHF8.3 billion changing hands. The highest number of trades was recorded on 15 July, with 374,414 transactions. The stock that generated the highest turnover during the reporting month was Roche GS with CHF11.1 billion; it was also the most traded stock with 438,558 transactions.

In products with cryptocurrencies as underlyings, trading turnover in July 2020 increased by 38% to reach CHF50m. The number of trades increased even by 43.8% over the previous month to 2,563. In total, 154 products on crypto currencies are available on the Swiss Stock Exchange. The product with the highest turnover was ZXBTAV on Bitcoin, with CHF19.5m; it was also the most traded product with 608 transactions.