Director's Perspective By Inbam Devadason Global share markets have been increasingly volatile over the last 3 months. The Australian share market was up to a record high on 2 September 2014 of 5,658 (S&P ASX 200). The market dropped 9% over the next 6 weeks, was up 7.5% over the next 3 weeks and is
Director's Perspective By Noel Hucker Are Australian listed companies in good shape ? You bet ! A focus on cost control, productivity and low funding costs have paid dividends – quite literally. For the 12 months ending June 2014, 90% of listed companies reported a profit, 69% of companies have improved their profit over the
Director's Perspective By Inbam Devadason Global share markets have performed well during the 2014 calendar year. Confidence is growing in the US recovery. US interest rates are expected to remain on hold for at least 6 months which will continue to stimulate their economy. Europe’s Purchasing Manufacturers Index (PMI) is now above 50, signalling expansion.
Director's Perspective By Mario Isaias The May Federal Budget contained measures aimed at bringing our national accounts back into surplus (although this is not forecast to occur until 2019-2020). Although these first steps are necessary in order to bring about economic sustainability for Australia, the immediate reaction was to see a drop in confidence by
Director's Perspective By Noel Hucker Several key themes are playing out at present. Firstly, all asset classes delivered positive absolute returns for the month of May 2014. Overseas, the United States is broadly recovering despite March quarter growth being negative and we expect the US economy to grow over the medium term. In Europe, interest
Director's Perspective By Inbam Devadason Global share markets were generally up around 1-2% over the month of April 2014 and have continued this upward trend in May 2014. Confidence is growing in the US recovery. The US Federal Reserve is reducing its bond buying program such that we expect it to finish by December 2014.
Director's Perspective By Mario Isaias The GFC was the trigger point for governments to embark on massive spending without finding new sources of revenue. Australia now faces the hard reality that this cannot go on forever. The upcoming Federal Budget on 13 May will most likely take the first steps to addressing this imbalance which will
Director's Perspective By Noel Hucker There’s a great saying about seeing the forest for the trees and it’s easy to fall into this trap when there is so much information and news out there – Russia and Crimea/Ukraine, Chinese production, tapering of the US Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing programme, etc. etc. Issues like these have
Director's Perspective By Inbam Devadason Global share markets were down around 5% over the month of January 2014 with concern over slowing Global growth and a natural correction after a strong rally in the 2013 calendar year. Over the month of February most of these losses have been recouped. Confidence in the Global recovery has
Director's Perspective By Mario Isaias Welcome to the New Year and I trust you had a wonderful festive season with family and friends. The previous calendar year will be remembered as one of the better investment years. With low interest rates and central bank support, most markets performed very well, led by the U.S. -
