-->Beitrag aus der Financial Times:

Financial Times Information Ltd - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, All
> Material Subject to Copyright Financial Express (c) 2003: All Rights
> Reserved
>
> Thanks to the weakening of US dollar and other dollar-linked investment
> products (including equities), a new sort of gold rush is emerging in
> various parts of the globe even as gold prices are rising day by day. Gold
> is once again gaining formal acceptance as a safe investment avenue and
the
> target for the renewed gold investment thrust are retail investors across
> the USA, Canada, Australia and even in Dubai through a novel product
called
> gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) which is considered to be the mother of
> all bullion investment products. It is only in India that the concerned
> authorities - both the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and
> Exchange Board of India (Sebi) - have been maintaining"extra cautious"
> stand since almost more than a year in clearing the application for the
> world's first Gold ETF that was filed last year by the Mumbai-based
> Benchmark Fund.
>
> Interestingly, the renewed thrust for retail gold investment through the
> gold ETF has been initiated by none other than the London-based World Gold
> Council (WGC), the non-profit-making global advocate for gold. For its
> maiden thrust aimed at retail investors, WGC has floated a subsidiary
> christened as Wold Gold Trust Services,LLC, which is headed by Stuart
> Thomas (managing director), one of the former hotshots of the equity
> markets in USA. Last Tuesday, World Gold Trust Services LLC, filed its
> application to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for continuous
> offering of securities of the Equity Gold Trust, an investment trust that
> will hold gold bullion. The application was filed with SEC was for 60.4
> million Equity Gold Shares (valued at around $2 billion). Equity Gold
> Shares is the new stock gold ETF - the first of its kind in the US and
> subject to SEC clearance, these shares with a ticker name of GLD, will be
> listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). UBS Warburg LLC will act as
> the sole underwrite
> r for the purpose of the initial purchase of the shares under this
> registration statement. HSBC Bank USA will act as the Trustee and the
> Custodian of the Equity Gold Trust. The WGC's move is seen as important
> because, since its being set up in 1987, WGC's main aim was to popularise
> gold investment through ETFs among retail investors. Also, it's main aim
> till recently, was restricted only to stimulating and maximising demand
for
> gold by consumers, investors, industry and the official sector. The WGC is
> also active in working to lower regulatory barriers in leading gold
> consuming countries, including India. Since the past couple of years, the
> WGC has been active in increasing gold consumption in China. What is more,
> since August 2002 WGC's executive committee has strengthened its marketing
> team, especially for making gold attractive to the retail investors
through
> exchange traded products. Its senior management team now has Stuart Thomas
> and Simon Village. Thomas is responsible for developing the new gold inves
> tment product. Before joining WGC, Stuart Thomas was Morgan Stanley's
first
> vice president, director, equity capital markets sales and solutions and
> previously Stuart was with Merrill Lynch in New York for 9 years. Simon
> Village, managing director (investment services) based in London with a
> similar remit to promote gold investment products globally on behalf of
the
> WGC. Simon was responsible for Global Mining Research for the HSBC
> Investment Banking Group and most recently repositioned HSBC's
> Institutional Securities business in South Africa. The creation of
> innovative gold-backed financial products will increase interest in gold
as
> an investment, industry sources here say. This is one among many
> initiatives that will reinvigorate the WGC under the leadership of
> chairman, Chris Thompson, and the recently appointed Jim Burton as the
> WGC's chief executive officer. Meanwhile, a similar move of promoting gold
> through ETFs among the retail investors has also been initiated in Canada,
> Australia and even in Dubai,
> informed sources said. The recently floated Central Gold Trust in Canada
is
> a closed-end trust that would allow investors to purchase gold-based
> securities at a discount or premium to the fund's net asset value, on the
> Toronto Stock Exchange. As of today, only one other closed-end fund
dealing
> in bullion trades in North America. Central Fund of Canada, on the
American
> and Toronto Stock Exchanges, is a repository for gold and silver and
trades
> at an approximately 20 per cent premium to bullion's price. Gold ETF is
> considered to be mother of all bullion investment products for retail
> investors as gold investment has typically been a province for large and
> institutional investors - banks, hedge, mutual funds. In the USA, there
are
> over 2500 gold and resource shares and mutual funds traded with a market
> cap of over $37 billion (it was $35 bn in 2001). An ETF is a portfolio
that
> trades on an exchange like a stock. The WGC's new gold instrument on the
> NYSE is expected to benefit investors who expect gold's gains to
> continue to accelerate. It provides an investment instrument with a
direct
> price-link to gold's daily price movements and eliminates the need for
> storage and insurance, which can be expensive for individual and
> institutional investors. The US marketplace for ETFs includes more than
100
> funds based on domestic and international stock indexes and fixed-income
> products. WGC's Equity Gold Trust fund will be backed by real bullion in a
> vault and trade every second of the market day. The initial offering of
> shares will be at a per share price based on one-tenth of an ounce of gold
> at the time of the offering. A bullion analyst said this move is expected
> to expand the audience for gold. Hard as it may seem to believe, it has
> always been very difficult for individuals to own gold. The ETFs should
> have an impact on the gold price, observers added.
>


Index:
- WGC = World Gold Council.

PS: heute ist Options-Verfall an der CBOE / es ist Zeit neue Stillhalter-Puts
aufzubauen, so lange es noch eine Prämie dafür gibt.

Emerald.