Offshore Capitalist

A Look At Sector Performance Over 5 Years

March 19, 2010 in Sectors by Roy

It’s interesting to compare how various sectors (as defined by the IMA) have performed over the last five years.
Here’s a table with sectors ranked by 5-year, 3-year and 1-year performance (at as 12-March-2010).

via IMA Sectors, Fund Returns , Performance.

An ETF for exposure to China blue chips – iShares FTSE Xinhua China 25 (FXC)

December 21, 2009 in Charts, China, ETFs, Funds by Roy

The iShares FTSE Xinhua China 25 is an Ireland domiciled ETF that tracks the FTSE Xinhua China 25 index.
The
index consists 25 of the largest and most liquid Chinese stocks (Red Chips and H shares) listed and
trading on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK). The index is specifically designed for international
investors, combining the ease of [...]

An ETF to track global agribusiness – Powershares Global Agriculture (PSGA)

December 21, 2009 in Agriculturals, Charts, ETFs, Funds by Roy

Invesco Powershares Global Agriculture is an ETF domiciled in Ireland with a principal listing on the London stockmarket. As of 17-Dec-09, the fund has delivered almost 70% performance year-to-date in US dollar terms.
The fund replicates the NASDAQ OMX Global Agriculture Index, which track the performance of the largest and most liquid companies engaged in agriculture [...]

Emerging Funds Resume Record Inflows, Shrug Off Dubai

December 11, 2009 in Emerging Markets by Roy

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — Emerging-market funds bounced back from the Dubai debt shock, heading for record annual inflows as investors took money out of U.S. equities and piled into Brazil, China, India and Russia.
Equity funds focused on developing nations received $2.3 billion more than was withdrawn in the week to Dec. 9, bringing 2009 inflows [...]

Surging Chinese property prices stoke bubble fears

December 11, 2009 in China, Property by Roy

Property prices in Chinese cities rose at the fastest pace in 16 months in November, the government said Thursday, amid growing concerns about bubbles building in real estate.
Property prices in 70 medium and large cities rose 5.7 percent in November from a year ago, the biggest jump since July 2008, figures from the National Bureau [...]

Pension deficits return to haunt blue-chips

December 6, 2009 in Pensions by Roy

As the economic downturn seems to be receding we can stop worrying about whether a company is at risk of going under from the weight of its debts; it’s time to return to our previous concern about whether its pension deficit might do the same job.
Pension deficits among FTSE 100 companies after the third quarter [...]

Dow Jones World Stock Index – Chart

December 6, 2009 in Charts by Roy

Click the image for full size.
Click the link below for source.
via $DJW – SharpCharts Workbench : StockCharts.com.

(EEM) iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Chart

December 6, 2009 in Charts, ETFs, Emerging Markets by Roy

The previous post today looked at the underlying index of this ETF – MSCI Emerging Markets index. The iShares ETF – EEM – tracks the index. Online charts are more easily found for listed securities than for indices, so let’s look at the MarketWatch chart of EEM.
Of interest is the very strong fall through the [...]

MSCI Emerging Market Index Chart

December 6, 2009 in Charts, Emerging Markets by Roy

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure equity market performance of emerging markets.
As of June 2009 the MSCI Emerging Markets Index consisted of the following 22 emerging market country indices: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, [...]

Russian Inflation Slowed to 9.1% in November as Demand Fell

December 6, 2009 in Russia by Roy

Russia’s inflation rate fell to the lowest level in more than two years last month after the deepest recession on record blunted demand, opening the door to further interest rate cuts from the central bank.
The rate fell to 9.1 percent from 9.7 percent in October, the Moscow-based Federal Statistics Service said in an e-mailed statement [...]

5 Year Gold Price Chart

December 6, 2009 in Charts, Gold by Roy

Five-year chart of gold price (GC.1) to 4-Dec-2009 (from FT.com). To remind yourself what GC.1 is, read this.
Click the image to see full size.
via FT.com / Markets data / GC.1:CME: Performance for COMEX GOLD 1 FUTURES CHAIN Front Mon.

China Gold Consumption

December 6, 2009 in Gold by Roy

China, the world’s largest producer of gold is all set to overtake India in gold consumption. A new study from global metals consultancy GFMS says that China is all set to beat India in gold consumption.
Here are the details:
**Gold jewellery and investment demand in China in 2009 is expected to reach 432 tonnes, compared with [...]

Gold is not luring Warren Buffett

December 6, 2009 in Gold by Roy

NEW YORK Commodity Online: A gold boom is on and despite the ‘bubble talk’ on gold, every investor worth the name is running after the shining metal. From Jim Rogers to John Paulson, most investors or investing analysts have argued that gold is the best investment bet against rising inflation and declining US dollar value. [...]

Distressed commercial property sales increasing around the world

December 1, 2009 in Property by Roy

Over 80% of key real estate markets around the world have seen a rise in distressed sales in the commercial property market, according to new research.
The survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors of its members in 25 countries found that the biggest pick up in distressed sales was in South Africa, the US, [...]

Japan’s debt-ridden govt plans new stimulus

December 1, 2009 in Economics, Japan by Roy

Japan’s debt-laden government said Monday it planned a new round of stimulus spending worth more than 31 billion dollars to prop up a feeble economic recovery that is threatened by the strong yen.
Japan, which has this year been digging itself out of its worst post-war recession, now faces the threat of the yen trading at [...]

Australia Increases Benchmark Interest Rate to 3.75%

December 1, 2009 in Commodities, Economics by Roy

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — Australia’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point for an unprecedented third straight month as evidence mounts that the nation’s economy is strengthening.
Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens increased the overnight cash rate target to 3.75 percent from 3.5 percent in Sydney, as forecast by 19 of [...]

India economy grows 7.9%, shatters forecasts

December 1, 2009 in India by Roy

India reported its best growth figures in 18 months on Monday as government spending and record low interest rates helped Asia’s third-largest economy rebound from the global financial crisis.
The 7.9-percent expansion in the quarter to September from a year earlier far eclipsed market forecasts and prompted the government to raise its growth expectations for the [...]

Mark Mobius: Dubai crisis could send emerging markets down 20%

December 1, 2009 in Emerging Markets by Roy

The Dubai debt crisis could spark a 20% sell off in world markets, according to Templeton Asset Management chairman Mark Mobius.
The emerging markets guru warns that the current recovery was already being put under pressure by the glut of IPOs coming to market in the developing world and the risk aversion prompted by the problems [...]

Dubai debacle stops bull run in its tracks

November 29, 2009 in MENA by Roy

Global stock markets plunged last week as investors feared a dangerous new phase in the economic crisis after Dubai asked to suspend debt repayments.
The Dubai government’s investment vehicle, Dubai World, sought late on Wednesday to shelve its obligations for six months. It had $59 billion (£36 billion) of liabilities at the end of August, most [...]

Efficient Markets or Herd Mentality? The Future of Economic Forecasting

November 21, 2009 in Economics by Roy

Ever wonder why you succumbed, yet again, to advertising hype or deceptive packaging and overpaid for a product? Or bought securities that you know were overvalued when the herd instinct was just too strong to resist?
Such irrationality is the focus of behavioral economists, who appear to be gaining greater credibility in macroeconomic circles since the [...]

Rampant Theft and Bribery Make It Difficult to Transform Russia’s Economy

November 21, 2009 in Russia by Roy

Russia is the worst country in the world for companies in terms of employee theft and extortion by officials, a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP survey showed.
Seventy-one percent of domestic and foreign companies in Russia were victims of fraud in the past year, double the rate reported in fellow BRIC countries Brazil, India and China, PwC said in [...]

Industrialization will help Africa fully join world economy, says Ban

November 21, 2009 in Africa by Roy

20 November 2009 – Armed conflict, inadequate infrastructure, weak governance, limited financing and technological abilities, and policies that stifle entrepreneurship, limit competition and raise the cost of doing business are hindering the industrialization that Africa needs to fully join the global economy, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today.
“Efforts to address these challenges must be rooted in [...]

Gold Demand Remains Robust As Economic Conditions Improve

November 21, 2009 in Gold by Roy

Total identifiable gold demand for the third quarter 2009 reached 800.3 tonnes, or US$24.7 billion in dollar terms, up 15% from the second quarter, as gold’s long-term store of value and wealth preservation qualities continued to attract investors and consumers. Jewellery and investment demand in non-western markets rebound from the very low levels seen in [...]

Oxbridge-Sounding Phone Scammers in Spain Seduce U.K. Investors

November 21, 2009 in Legal and Regulatory by Roy

Bloomberg — Credit controller Linda Reay was sorting the daily pile of bills back in 2005 at the bed- manufacturing factory where she worked near Carlisle, an industrial city in northwestern England. Then she took a phone call that would destroy her retirement dreams.
The smooth-talking caller identified himself as a London stockbroker named Robert Samuel. [...]

Société Générale tells clients how to prepare for ‘global collapse’

November 20, 2009 in Economics by Roy

Telegraph — Société Générale has advised clients to be ready for a possible “global economic collapse” over the next two years, mapping a strategy of defensive investments to avoid wealth destruction.
In a report entitled “Worst-case debt scenario”, the bank’s asset team said state rescue packages over the last year have merely transferred private liabilities onto [...]

Recovery still too timid to halt rising unemployment, says OECD Economic Outlook

November 20, 2009 in Economics by Roy

The economic recovery now spreading across OECD countries is still too timid to halt the continuing rise in unemployment, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook.
The jobless rate is expected to peak in the first half of 2010 in the US, but it may not be until 2011 that unemployment begins to fall in the [...]

Royal Mint cashes in as gold market coins it

November 20, 2009 in Gold by Roy

The Royal Mint has dramatically ramped up production of gold coins as demand for the precious metal continues to surge.Production more than quadrupled to 32,735.8 ounces – just over one tonne – in the third quarter, from 7,500.2 ounces in the same period last year.
The increase is even more striking considering that the third quarter [...]

Obama: Too much debt could fuel double-dip recession

November 19, 2009 in Economics by Roy

BEIJING, Nov 18 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession.
With the U.S. unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, Obama told Fox News his administration faces [...]

Bear market rally nearing its end, says Barry Ritholz

November 19, 2009 in Economics by Roy

Barry Ritholz, author of the best-selling book Bailout Nation, thinks the market moves of this year signify a typical bear market rally and there are more choppy waters approaching.
Speaking at the Citywire Fund Selector Forum on Wednesday evening, Ritholz, who is CEO and director of equity research at FusionIQ in NewYork, dismissed the idea that [...]

Factors that favour the crude oil bulls

November 18, 2009 in Energy by Roy

Commodity Online — Several factors contributed to the recent rally in oil prices including tighter physical oil supply and demand fundamnetals, loose monetary policy and a weaker US dollar.The global economy is bouncingback after the sharpest recession in the post World War II period. According to a Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BofAML) analysis GDP growth [...]

IMF chief keeps up pressure on China to let yuan rise

November 18, 2009 in China, Currencies by Roy

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Tuesday again urged Beijing to let the yuan rise “sooner rather than later”, saying it would benefit both China and the global economy.
“The renminbi (yuan) is undervalued. It’s not only in the interests of the global economy but also in the interests of China to have a revaluation,” [...]

Chinese demand for platinum ‘to hit record high’

November 18, 2009 in Other Precious Metals by Roy

Chinese demand for platinum jewellery is soaring towards a record annual high thanks to a sharp drop in the precious metal’s price, leading metals group Johnson Matthey forecast on Tuesday.
In a key report on platinum, Johnson Matthey said the metal would trade between 1,280 and 1,550 dollars an ounce during the next six months — [...]

Britain’s biggest pension schemes battle £44 billion deficit

November 18, 2009 in Legal and Regulatory by Roy

Is your company pension scheme your only retirement plan? Are you confident that your employer will still be around when you retire, to pay your pension? Are you confident the company actually has the resources to cover it’s pension committment? REALLY? Think Lehmans, think Enron, think…
A vast underestimation of obligations has left some of Britain’s [...]

Silver all set to outshine gold in 2010

November 17, 2009 in Other Precious Metals by Roy

Silver may yet outshine gold in 2010 as spot prices for the white metal respond to the prospect of a surge in industrial demand. With a little additional help from investment demand, silver may even rally into the $25 an ounce range.
So says Chintan Parikh, a commodity analyst at the CPM Group – a leading [...]

Global recovery threatens food price surge

November 17, 2009 in Agriculturals by Roy

Conditions are ripe for a fresh surge in food prices as the global economy recovers, says the senior United Nations agriculture official.
Jacques Diouf, director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), believes that the world is not doing enough to avert another food crisis. His warning comes as leaders are expected to gather in [...]

Survey: 2010 Will Be Buyers’ Market for Commercial Real Estate

November 17, 2009 in Property by Roy

The ideal time to invest in commercial real estate is 2010 – that’s when commercial property prices will hit bottom, according to a recently published survey of industry experts, including investors, developers, lenders, brokers, and consultants.
The Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010 study, released last week by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and the Urban Land Institute [...]

UK commercial property market makes comeback

November 17, 2009 in Property by Roy

The first quarterly increase in property values since June 2007 is expected to boost British Land’s net asset value by up to 4pc over the three-month period. Land Securities, which does not report quarterly, is likely to show a slight decrease in the value of its portfolio over the six-month period. However the company is [...]

Russia’s economy sees 13.9% growth in Q3

November 17, 2009 in Russia by Roy

Statistics body Rosstat has today announced that Russia’s economy expanded by 13.9% in the third quarter compared with the second quarter.
However, when compared with the same period a year ago, the Russian economy contracted by 8.9%.
The economy, which is heavily reliant on oil exports, has suffered from a severe downturn but the latest figures show [...]

UK house prices to fall over the next three months: Rightmove

November 17, 2009 in Property by Roy

According to the latest Rightmove House Price index, the fall in prices over the last month will be the first of three monthly falls before asking prices resume their recovery in February of next year.
The 1.6 per cent decrease compares with falls of 2.9 per cent in November last year and 0.7 per cent in [...]

Harrods reports strong sales of gold with the 100 gram bar the most popular

November 17, 2009 in Gold by Roy

Gold hovered around the $1,100/oz mark as the week closed having reached an all-time high on Thursday on a weaker US dollar and the continued appetite from investors for the precious metal’s haven attributes.
Demand for gold continues to be strong with Harrods recently getting in on the act by selling gold bars and coins to [...]

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