Regions

GLOBAL - Emerging markets came up trumps again in January, posting a positive 2.8% return, according to the CSFB/Tremont Hedge Fund Index.

GLOBAL - Institutional investors should still bet on a forthcoming "explosion" in the private equity secondaries market, despite a steep downturn in the sector overall, says new research.

CENTRAL EUROPE - Germany's Allianz and UniCredito, the Italian bank, are set to take a bigger bite of Croatia's Zagrebacka banka in response to the country's looming pension reform.

GLOBAL - BITA Plus Consultants (BPC), the global provider of risk management and portfolio optimisation software, yesterday announced the release of BITA Curve, a modular risk management product for fund managers that uses an open architecture to facilitate...

GLOBAL - Barclays Global Investors (BGI) has come under fire for its stake in a company that is believed to have brought massive destruction to the Indonesian rainforest.

GLOBAL - Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) is predicting a boom year for the gold market, claiming that a combination of political and economic factors has created market conditions that are "the strongest seen for years".

GLOBAL - Ned Riley, State Street Global Advisors' (SSgA) chief investment strategist - global active equity, has claimed that equity markets are on the rise again, with technology stocks taking a lead role on the recovery.

EUROPE - The European Commission has reinforced safeguards for insurance policyholders by boosting solvency margins for life and non-life sectors in light of "new risks".

EUROPE - PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has warned that the business competitiveness of the European Union is under threat due to obstacles such as cross border pensions and employment regulations that prevent workforce mobility.

GLOBAL - AXA Investment Managers believes that after the disappointment of 2001 the high-yield bond market is poised to enter a recovery stage with stimulating returns expected in 2002.