Many thanks for your thoughts on the Hong Kong market. For a while I have been scared that we could easily see a major downward correction on the price of gold.

On a different note, have you ever considered investing in currency. I am told that based on history, as the global financial market continues to wobble, one of the safest havens in the Swiss Frank. Your opinion?

The policy statement released by the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday contained few surprises. It reiterated that the pace of recovery in output and employment continues to be slow, with high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth and tight credit remaining the major draggers. Even business spending on equipment and software is slowing from the pronounced rebound earlier in the year. Lending valid ground for the Fed to continue its accommodative policy, longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable but measures of underlying inflation have trended lower in recent quarters.

As expected, the FOMC decided to expand its holdings of securities by reinvesting principal payments from those holdings and purchasing a further US$600b of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011, a reduction compared to QE1's US$1.75t during December 2008 and March 2010. However, adjustments will be made in respect of the pace of the FOMC's securities purchases and the overall size of the asset-purchase program in order to achieve the best possible results for employment and price stability.

Local property stocks still reacted positively to the interest rate outlook, as the Fed continued to foresee exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period. In general, property investment stocks chalked up the mightiest advances as the valuation of their investment properties is highly sensitive to the capitalization rates used. In fact, the actual yields on transacted investment properties were significantly lower than the capitalization rates adopted for valuation purposes. Our top pick in the sector is Wheelock (0020.HK, $30.25, BUY), the parent of Wharf (Holdings) (0004.HK, $56.25, HOLD) that traded at a 1H10 P/B of 1.2x, versus Wheelock's 0.8x. The valuation gap is not justified in view of their shared management and strategies.

Despite the hectic market, the IPO for CJ Land has been withdrawn. The mainland developer boasts of its niche in developing high-end residential and premium commercial properties in Shanghai. The initial plan called for the raising of up to $4.8b. In fact, the company is operating a business model that will likely be followed by other industry players - achieving a balance between property investment, which aims at growing recurrent income and capital appreciation, and property development, which produces properties for sale like a home factory. Cheung Kong (0001.HK, $129.90, HOLD) had promised to subscribe for US$50m worth of CJ Land shares, though its own business strategy deviates from CJ's as CK's own strength has been mass residential development and it only kept selected commercial properties for long-term investment.

The Big man @Pkoli,

Please take your time do not rush to any investment you do not understand, but take it from me I have been investing on commodoties for 5 years now , but be aware that I invest on only commodity blue chip stocks and my approabh is cautios speculation (max of 2 to 3 trades a year).

Let me restate that my strategy is to invest on commodityblue chip stocks not the commodity itself.

For example this year I took position in Barrick Gold at CAD 39 (world biggest gold producer) ticker symbol ABX.TO in Feb this year when spot gold price was 1,105 USD. I sold it at 44 CAD in May when Gold was 1240 USD. In June I bought Suncor energy SU.TO at 30 CAD when oil price was 69 USD., IT is now 35 CAD and I plan to exit at 39 CAD. At the moment oil is 86 USD.
With this 2 trades I will be satisfied and re-strategize for 2011. I am more than satisfied to make annualized 30 percent gain in a strong currency.



There is no way in this universe there will no opportunity to position in this long list :-

Gold
Platinum
Silver
Iron Ore
Copper
Nickel
Uranium
Coal
Ethanol
Citrus
Wheat
Rice
Oil
Natural Gas
Oil Sands
Cocoa
Sugar
Zinc
Aluminium
Diamond
Pottasium
Lead
Steel
bitumen
Tin



I have not yet researched into most of them and identify top listed stocks in different countries
so far me I have where to invest on in my life time even to the next generation after me.
On the interim it may interest you to check the following web sites .

www.infomine.com
www,mineweb,com
www.kitco.com



The advanced world cannot operate without commodities & Energy as they are the main drivers of industries (Airlines, Building Industries, Automobiles, Power Generation, Nuclear Energy,Semi Conductors,ship building, Telecommunications etc etc)

The hype about Gold and Oil for now is just that it is the raining commodities.. It is estimated that 2014/2015 it may not be attractive to invest in Gold stocks. But there are numerous alternatives.

Gold is driven as investors heaven as a store of value when due to weakness of major world currencies. Analyst expectation is that in 4 years time the world currencies would have fully recovered. This is one out of several school of thoughts.

As stated earlier my basis of opinion is the current commodity price before I even look at the fundamentals of the chosen blue chip.


Let me also ask, do you give part of your funds to be managed by fund managers as a leverage ?

Hong Kong shares ended higher for a sixth straight session Monday to close at a more than 29-month high, led by shipping companies, but HSBC weighed on the broader index after posting lackluster third-quarter results Friday.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 87.55 points, or 0.35%, to 24,964.37, its highest closing level since it ended at 25,043 on May 22, 2008. It traded between 24,732.52 and 35,988.57. Market volume fell to HK$102.92 billion from HK$133.81 billion Friday.

Analysts said local shares will likely maintain their upward momentum this week given the high market volume, though profit-taking pressure is growing as the index has risen 8.1% in the past six sessions.

Francis Lun, general manager of Fulbright Securities, said the index is likely to surpass 25,000 this week given the ample liquidity in the market.

Daily market volume jumped above HK$100 billion last week due to surging fund flows into the region as investors have been seeking out higher returns after the U.S. Federal Reserve's announcement Wednesday that it was undertaking a second round of quantitative easing.

However, Belle Liang, a director at Core Pacific-Yamaichi Research, was more cautious in her outlook.

'In the near term, we will see some more consolidation in equities after the market fully digests the second round of quantitative easing, and we suggest short-term investors accumulate on market corrections,' she said.

Shipping companies led the blue-chip index's rise Monday as freight rates have recovered on the back of strong global economic growth. Cosco Pacific jumped 1.5% to HK$13.70.

China Merchants Holdings (International) rose 3.6% to HK$31.85 after it said Friday it agreed to buy a 47.5% stake in a container-terminal operator in Nigeria via a joint venture for US$154 million.

'While we estimate the effective earnings contribution will be limited to around 2% for China Merchants, we believe (the acquisition) should help expand China Merchants' global network to capture emerging growth opportunities,' Morgan Stanley said Monday.

Standard Chartered ended up 0.7% at HK$244.00 after the U.K.-based lender said Monday that shareholders had subscribed to 98.53% of its GBP3.26 billion rights issue.

Bucking the broader index's upward trend, HSBC fell 1.6% to HK$86.70 after the London-based lender said Friday its pretax profit in the third quarter grew more slowly than in the first half of the year and that revenue during the January-September period fell compared with a year earlier. -By Yvonne Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; yvonne.lee@dowjones.com

Sands China Ltd. (1928.HK) said Tuesday its third-quarter net profit more than doubled from a year earlier, driven by soaring gambling revenue growth in Macau and strong performances at its casinos in Macau's Cotai area.

The company, which listed in Hong Kong in November 2009, said its net profit for the three months ended Sept. 30 totaled US$199.15 million under International Financial Reporting Standards, up from US$86.84 million a year earlier.

Revenue rose 27% to US$1.08 billion from US$846.03 million.

Sands China's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a measure widely used to evaluate the performance of gambling companies, rose 44% to US$327.9 million from US$228.2 million.

The company, around 70%-owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS), didn't recommend a dividend.

Las Vegas Sands last month reported Sands China's third-quarter results on a U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles basis. It said Sands China's third-quarter net income more than doubled under GAAP to US$196.6 million from US$87.4 million a year earlier