Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 703
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Features
Merrill's horrible year
Merrill Lynch’s May 2002 is testimony to the old saw that it never rains but pours. There was the well-publicised agreement reached with New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer that saw the investment bank pay a $100m (E109m) fine. In making a settlement, Merrill Lynch was at pains to say ...
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Features
Inflation fears stalk Euroland recovery
The recent spate of optimism in Euroland’s equity markets is beginning to wane as inflationary fears keep resurfacing. “I have very little confidence in the equity markets at the moment. It’s not that the markets are doing badly, but they have become somewhat stagnant. Until the ECB increases rates and ...
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Features
Dollar languishes in the doldrums
Is something happening to the dollar? Something big and bad? Between the beginning of March and mid-May of this year, the US currency has declined just over 5% versus the euro. Not that noteworthy perhaps and the foreign exchanges have certainly seen much more drama than that in the past. ...
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Features
Market stuck in a rut
Hopes for a significant recovery in the UK equity markets this year have all but disappeared. Investor responses to negative news in the telecommunications sector have been surprisingly bearish, say strategists. If this attitude persists, market levels are bound to stay depressed, they say. Shares of companies in old economy ...
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Features
Sobering long-term view
The ‘Golden 90s’ for equities are definitely over. In the mean time, most investors have recognised that the sooner we put the past decade behind us, the better off we will be at the end of the next decade. Equity markets across Europe have fallen sharply over the past two ...
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Features
Risk clouds equities
Asset allocation is often emphasised as the most important single decision in the investment process leading to a good result. For portfolio managers a good result, of course, is outperforming a benchmark. As soon as the macroeconomic scenario is established, factors such as expected return on the different asset classes, ...
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Features
Taking the slow road to reform
The development of the Italian pension fund industry has slowed down. Political discussions regarding the reform of the system, changes in the labour market and the never-ending negotiations about the transfer of the TFR into pensions, have increased uncertainty about the future growth of the industry. According to a recent ...
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Features
New index gives better picture of market
The Italian equity market is awaiting the arrival of a new index. The Italian stock exchange, Borsa Italiana, and global equity index provider Standard & Poor’s have established a partnership to launch a new index intended to become the benchmark for the Italian equity market. The new index, to be ...
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Features
Pensions to drive future of funds
The Italian fund management industry has been among the most attractive markets in Europe for quite some time, but this picture is changing slightly. The extraordinary growth that this industry experienced during the last decade has significantly slowed down, according to a study published by London-based FERI Fund Market Information ...
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Features
Spending the risk budget
Risk budgeting is a multi-faceted problem, and there are many kinds of interpretations. These arise from the different ways we can define risk and the ‘budget’. When we are analysing the risks within a pension fund, it is best to view the pension fund as a part of the sponsor’s ...
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Features
Need to tap into wider information
A once-in-a-lifetime change has taken place in the behaviour of share prices since late 1998. Individual share price volatility has risen to levels markedly higher than at any previous time bar a brief period in the mid-1970s. This change has had a direct impact on portfolio risk levels – nearly ...
