Traders get busy as market gets crazy
Long live the market's swings and roundabouts! So is the cry from equity traders who arrive at work on Monday morning full of confidence and with fresh hope of hitting their full-year targets.
Equities desks had their busiest week of the year last week, as fund managers emerged from under their desks to stuff their boots with cheap stock.
Bloomberg data shows Tuesday and Wednesday were the second and fourth busiest trading days of 2015 to-date, while it was also the busiest week of the year with some $5.15 billion of shares changing hands.
Phones rang off the hook on trading desks last week as investors jumped to make the most of a market sell-off. Nic Walker
Equities desk heads said the key was to keep chief investment officers and portfolio managers trading as shuffle in-and-out of post results meetings with management teams this week.
Brokers reckon there will be plenty of investors looking to re-set their portfolios for the months ahead and in reaction to more than a few surprises in reporting season.
Equities desks also have the upcoming initial public offering season to lift volumes in coming weeks. Brett Blundy's Aventus Retail Property Fund will get the IPO market ticking along again this week, before the likes of Redcape Property Group, McGrath Estate Agents, Baby Bunting and CBL Insurance ramp up listing plans in early September.
Macquarie's equities desk looks particularly busy, preparing raisings for ASX-hopefuls Aventus, Link Group, Global Traffic Network, GenesisCare and IDP Education in the next six weeks.
Macquarie could use the kick. The broker has slipped to fifth in the cash equities broker market share for 2015 to-date, trailing arch rivals Deutsche Bank, Citi, UBS and Morgan Stanley based on IRESS data which includes both ASX and Chi-X Australia trade.
Elsewhere in IPOs, Kiwi insurer CBL Insurance's float appears one step closer with the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority set to sign off on the acquisition of Australia's AssetInsure this week. AssetInsure has about $40 million net tangible assets and specialises in surety, aviation, credit enhancement and a range of specialist property, general liability and motor insurances.
AFR graphic
It's understood CBL has started booking domestic fundies for meetings next week, ahead of an expected $NZ400 million-odd dual listing.
Elsewhere, Livetiles will list on the ASX this week with a$50 million market capitalisation.
The US-based technology group recently completed a reverse merger with Modun Resources and $12 million capital raising, underwritten by Blue Ocean Equities.
Livetiles is the latest offering from a group of financial backers led by former Ironbridge operative Mike Hill and follows the listing of global curated luxury marketplace, AHAlife, last month.
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