Derivs - Equity

HSBC is pitching a basket structure to reference a new equity index it launched last week to capture increasing demand for food and use of plants for fuel.

Markus Koch, head of the single stock options trading desk at Dresdner Kleinwort in London, left the firm Monday.

Vinod Aachi, co-head of equity structuring and head of private banking sales in Deutsche Bank’s institutional client group in Singapore, is leaving the firm to join Standard Chartered Bank.

Retail buyers in Hong Kong’s warrants market are losing money because of a tendency to rely on call options.

Wary institutional investors looking to come back into the market are asking for capital guaranteed equity offerings—but because of low interest rates, firms are having a hard time putting these together.

Volumes in the global variance swaps market are down as hedge funds shy away from the equity markets.

Lehman Brothers has selected a basket of Asian stocks to benefit from a stagflationary environment and is taking structures based on this to a mix of Asian investors.

Barclays Capital has opened an equity derivatives unit in India, joining a handful of foreign banks in the market.

Charlie O’Flaherty, co-head of ABN AMRO’s private investor products group in New York, has left the firm.

Rahul Mookerjee, Asian head of issuer and investor coverage at Deutsche Bank, has taken a sabbatical until year-end, prompting a reorganization.

Christian Schackmann, head of single stock derivatives trading at Citigroup in London, has moved to hedge fund Citadel.

Edward Ho, senior managing director and head of structured equity sales in Hong Kong at Bear Stearns, will not remain at the firm following the JPMorgan takeover.