Indices

CHINA - Hotspot Fxi, the electronic foreign exchange marketplace system for the institutional market has announced the opening of a new representative office in Beijing.

US - If plans to privatise part of Social Security are successful, the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a likely model for the type of savings accounts that could result, according to the chairman of Standard and Poor's index committee.

AUSTRALIA - The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), in conjunction with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), has issued a new Class Order that facilitates "intra-fund" superannuation member benefit transfers.

GLOBAL - Global real estate investment management firm CB Richard Ellis Investors has launched CBRE Global Real Estate Securities - an investment programme offering global securities investment and management services.

FRANCE - AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) and BNP Paribas Asset Management have pooled forces to develop a new range of ETFs to be sold under the EasyETF brand.

GERMANY - The German government has removed a burdensome tax on investors in listed real estate companies and will allow them to claim a beneficial tax rate on dividends received from these companies in 2004.

EUROPE - Axa Investment Managers is to bring the first European real estate ETF (exchange traded fund) onto the Euronext Paris exchange next Thursday, 2 December.

GLOBAL - Turkish asset management firm Finans Portfoy and Dow Jones Indexes have launched Turkey's first exchange-traded fund.

UK - Bus, train and ferry operator Stagecoach Group risks a backlash from investors over targets for executive share options, corporate governance experts claim.

UK - HSBC is set to launch an Islamic pension fund aimed at Britain's two million Muslims, becoming the first UK bank to offer such a pension fund.