{"id":10125,"date":"2012-04-20T16:21:43","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T14:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/equities-teams-face-shakeout-as-crisis-bites\/"},"modified":"2012-04-20T16:21:43","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T14:21:43","slug":"equities-teams-face-shakeout-as-crisis-bites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/equities-teams-face-shakeout-as-crisis-bites\/","title":{"rendered":"Equities teams face shakeout as crisis bites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Luke Jeffs and Sarah White<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">LONDON April 20<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; Europe&#8217;s banks and stockbrokers<br \/>\nmay be forced to cut or scrap equity research and trading units,<br \/>\nto reduce their exposure to a market that is an increasing drag<br \/>\non their ailing businesses.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Most have already cut staff in equities trading and, with no<br \/>\nsigns of a recovery, are starting to question more fundamentally<br \/>\ntheir commitments to what used to be one of their core services.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If the lower volumes of the last five years continue, the<br \/>\nindustry will inevitably see further withdrawals and reductions<br \/>\nthat will change the competitive landscape in the equities<br \/>\nmarket,&#8221; said Sam Ruiz, who heads Nomura&#8217;s equity unit in the<br \/>\nEurope, Middle East and Africa region.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The financial crisis has unnerved investors who have<br \/>\nresponded by cutting their investment in shares, causing the<br \/>\nglobal equity market to trade at about a third lower than the<br \/>\npre-crisis highs for the last three years.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Already battered trading volumes dipped another 20 percent<br \/>\nin the first quarter of the year, according to the World<br \/>\nFederation of Exchanges, while competition between firms means<br \/>\ncommissions on executing trades are razor-thin.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>HSBC&#8217;s top equities boss, Patrick George, predicted last<br \/>\nmonth volume would never return to the heady, pre-crisis days,<br \/>\nmaking an industry shakeout inevitable.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>For many smaller stockbroking firms &#8212; a historical<br \/>\ncornerstone of the London financial market and which rely on<br \/>\ncommission for revenue &#8212; the long-term downturn and small<br \/>\nmargins are a killer.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Some have fallen prey to consolidation. South African<br \/>\ninvestment bank Investec, for instance, bought securities house<br \/>\nEvolution last year, and broker Collins Stewart Hawkpoint has<br \/>\nbeen absorbed by Canada&#8217;s Canaccord.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Luke Jeffs and Sarah White LONDON April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Europe&#8217;s banks and stockbrokers may be forced to cut or scrap equity research and trading units, to reduce their exposure to a market that is an increasing drag on their ailing businesses. Most have already cut staff in equities trading and, with no signs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}