Knowledge is Power: Turkey, Sandy, Taxes Edition

Turkey: can stocks go any higher? (Beyond BRICs)

The best way to invest in Britain’s stockmarket (MoneyWeek)

Load up on Canadian equities, says Canaccord strategist (Financial Post)

How to take a punt on the eurozone (TrustNet UK)

Are Taxes Headed Higher? (Charles Schwab)

Hurricane Sandy –  Costs to come (The Economist Blog)

Economically speaking, Hurricane Sandy not seen as devastating (Macleans)

Internet traffic exchange: 2 billion users and it’s done on a handshake (OECD Insights Blog)

Picking dividend stocks (Fidelity ViewPoints)

A Visit to Google Land – The Intransparent Methods of an Internet Giant (Der Spiegel)

 

Source: Global Finance

Average Stock Holding Periods on Select Global Exchanges

In September, 2010 I wrote an article discussing the decline average holding periods on the major stocks exchanges of the world. One of the charts included in that post is the following chart for the NYSE:

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The average holding period for stocks has declined on most major exchange for many years now for due to short-term mentality of individuals and institutions alike, lower transaction costs, growth of hedge funds, high-frequency trading, growth of ETFs, etc.According to one report, investors held stocks on the New York Stock Exchange(NYSE) for  an average of two years in 1991 but only for five months in 2008. However this situation has improved since the financial crisis of 2008 and in 2010 the average holding period was eight months as shown in the chart below:

 

Source: Means, Ends and Dividends, March 2012, BlackRock Investment Institute

Inequality of Income Between Select Countries

The Gini Coefficient measures inequality of income or wealth between countries. The higher the ratio the higher the inequality.Countries such as Brazil, Russia, China, India, USA, etc. have high Gini coefficients due to the extreme disparity in wealth and income between the elite and the rest of the population.

The following chart shows the Gini coefficients for select group of countries based on disposable income:

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Source:  How tax can reduce inequality, OECD Observer

In Asia, China is more unequal than India. Among the OECD countries, Turkey is more unequal than Sweden which is not surprising.

From the OECD article:

A rising tide may not now lift all boats, to misquote US President Kennedy’s original analogy made in 1963 linking economic growth to prosperity for all. Can governments maintain the social cohesion needed for sustainable, long-term growth? Supporting an equitable income distribution remains one of the key goals of fiscal (and tax) policy.

The rapid growth of emerging economies in the past decade or so has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of absolute poverty and reduced income disparities across the world as a whole. At the same time, until the financial and economic crisis of 2008, most other economies were expanding too. However, within the OECD and emerging economies not all regions or people benefitted equally from the growth years. On the contrary, the distribution of income tended to become more unequal.

The Top 25 Global Pharmaceutical Companies by 2011 Sales

The Pharmaceutical Executive magazine published earlier this year its annual ranking of the Top 50 Pharmaceutical Companies by revenue. The following table lists the top 25 global companies ranked based on sales in 2011:

Source: Pharmaceutical Executive

The top 50 companies accounted sold $610 billion in human prescription pharmaceuticals last year and just the top 10 accounted for 59% of the total sales of the 50 companies. Four companies that dropped off the ranking due to mergers are Genzyme, Alcon, Cephalon and Nycomed. Israel-based world’s largest generic drug maker Teva(TEVA) was ranked at number 12. Amgen(AMGN) and Gilead Sciences(GILD), two of the hot biotech companies from the 90s, appear in the above list as well.

The complete list of the top 50 companies and other rankings can be found in the pdf document located here.

Related:

The World’s 50 Largest Pharmaceutical Companies by Sales (in 2010)

The Top 50 Global Pharma Companies 2013

Disclosure: No Positions

Who is Responsible for Most of the Daily UK Stock Market Volume?

Most of the stocks in the UK equity market is held by pension funds, insurance companies, foreigners, etc. The share of stocks held by individuals is very low. But on an average about 700,000 shares are traded on a daily basis on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The majority of the daily trades on the LSE are not by individual investors but by traders. In fact, a a recent study showed that 72% of daily market turnover is done by Hedge Funds, High Frequency Traders and Proprietary Traders. Though these market participants hold a small portion of the total shares listed they are biggest traders.

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Source: THE KAY REVIEW OF UK EQUITY MARKETS AND LONG-TERM DECISION MAKING, Final Report, June 2012, The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, UK