Brokerage firm Kotak Securities today tied up with Denmark-based Saxo Capital Markets to launch a trading platform that provides real-time access to equities across 24 stock exchanges.
 
Kotak Trader provides direct access to equities, ETF’s and Real Estate Investment Trusts spanning 24 stock exchanges across the USA, Europe, Asia and Australia, Kotak Securities said in a release.

Kotak Securities Executive Director D Kannan said: “With the growing appetite of Indian investors for overseas investing, we are introducing Kotak Trader which aims to provide the opportunity for the investor to truly diversify their portfolio across geographies, sectors and exchanges.”

Kotak Trader, the global online trading platform provided by Saxo Capital Markets, will provide transparent pricing, real-time streaming news, charting and data analysis system, he said.

What will be the role of Kotak Securities Ltd.?
Kotak Securities Ltd. is an introducing broker to

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There you go again, Jim, with that same ole 'gold bug' stuff again. 

But before I get to that, let me poke away at your thoughts that buying the yuan is a “no-brainer.” 

It’s a no-brainer in that eventually the yuan will be revalued against the U.S. dollar. But it’s hardly anything like a no-brainer for an investor facing the opportunity cost of locking up assets in a security that might not move at all for years.

While I totally agree with you on the direction of the yuan/dollar trade, I don’t have any idea on the time frame or the magnitude of that move. Where would a free-floating yuan trade against the dollar? And when will it go there?

The only honest answer to those questions is twofold: “higher” and “eventually.” 

But that doesn’t mean the yuan's a good buy. It could be

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Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) plans to sell assets and issue more common stock after being told by the federal government that it must raise $33.9 billion to adequately guard against “more adverse” economic conditions.

Bank of America was one of 10 banks told by the government to raise more capital following the so-called stress test. The government concluded that BofA faces a potential $136.6 billion in losses from troubled loans and investments in 2009 and 2010. The bank’s $34 billion capital shortfall was more than twice that of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), which had the second greatest capital need.

BofA Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis said Thursday that his company will start closing the capital shortfall by raising $17 billion in common equity, both by selling new shares and converting a portion of its privately held

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The U.S. private sector cut a record 742,000 jobs in March, higher than analysts’ expectations and a leap from the upwardly revised 706,000 jobs cut in February, according to a report from ADP Employer Services. The report is based on data from about 400,000 businesses with an estimated 24 million people on payroll. According to the ADP’s report, businesses with more than 499 employees shed 128,000 jobs. Companies with 50 to 499 workers slashed 330,000 workers from their payrolls. And small businesses cut 284,000 jobs. One of the biggest losses came from International Business Corp. (IBM), which cut up to 5,000 jobs last week, a source told Bloomberg. And Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN) said last week that it will close an Oklahoma plant and cut 580 jobs there. Another report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said that the ...

 

NYSE CEO: More Consolidation Coming

Duncan Niederauer sees more shakeout taking place in the exchange industry. At least that is what the NYSE Euronext chief executive said during a speech on Thursday, according to Dow Jones Newswires' Jacob Bunge.

Niederauer also said the NYSE Euronext is planning to register its London-based clearinghouse as a U.S. trust bank, the article added.

You can read the full report here.

 

From Top To Bottom & Back

Whether the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed on Nov. 20 is debatable, notes John Prestbo.

But the executive director of Dow Jones Indexes writes in his latest MarketWatch column that whether stock indexes have hit a trough or not, it's likely any rebound will take some time to work through the economy. He goes on to trace the history of bear markets and put the Dow's recent performance into some sort of perspective.

You can read the story

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