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Pimco Says Australia Is A Top Investment Destination
One of the largest global managers of fixed income securities, Pimco, says that Australia now offers the most investment opportunities in the developed world.
During one of its regular updates to the global bond markets, David Fisher who runs global product management for Pimco also said there was a “new normal environment”, which looked much different to that of previous decades.
Despite the volatility in Australia caused by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s proposal to tax mining companies, a cooling China and debt concerns in Europe, Australia remains one of the top investment destinations of Pimco.
“Starting with a ladder, we would say those countries with solid fundamentals include in the developed world places like Canada and Australia, not only because they came into the crisis with better conditions … but also because they’re very well exposed to the growth dynamics in the emerging world and particularly through the channel of commodity prices,” Mr. Fisher.
Mr. Fisher also warned that there were risks posed by unrealistic expectations and over priced companies as both America and Australia both enter into critical reporting periods.
Pimco chief Bill Gross surprised global markets when he announced the asset manager had begun investing in equities.
“While we think bonds are priced for a depression, we think that equities are still priced for something more akin to the ‘old normal’ than the ‘new normal’, he said. We think that there’s still some scope for compression in PE ratios and we think that optimism over profit recovery is probably a little bit exaggerated in this environment of very, very weak growth, outside of a few countries such as Australia and Canada and the emerging world. So, on a relative basis, we would say that the returns in global bonds, while not spectacular, are certainly attractive.”
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Global Financial Market Instability Hits Australian Super Fund Returns
Volatile global financial markets that plunged in the aftermath of the European sovereign default crisis have consumed the highly anticipated bounce in super fund returns.
The drop in financial markets is likely to result in investment earnings falling below double digits for the financial year, ending at about 9.6 per cent.
The recent volatility has seen Australian super funds lose as much as 50 per cent of their valuations which provided the federal government with the impetus to ease rules on capital draw downs from pension funds.
As recently as two months ago, analysts were confidently predicting investment returns as high as 15 per cent. However in the last couple of months valuations have been hammered by renewed fears of the recovery in the global economy, which has produced a string of negative equity market returns in Australia.
The poor performance this year has resulted in lower rolling cumulative returns, with the median five year return now estimated to be 3.7 per cent, according to research firm SuperRatings.
Since the compulsory super was established in 1992, the median balanced fund has returned 6.8 per cent a year, illustrating the fact that a well diversified portfolio does indeed protect investors from catastrophic loss.
Balanced funds have both met and exceeded their long term objectives of outrunning the Consumer Price Index by an annual 3 per cent SuperRatings data shows.
Chant West, another research firm estimates that the median returns for investment funds who hold between 61 to 80 per cent of their portfolio in growth assets is exactly 10 per cent.
Superannuation industry figures look better when taken over the past seven years, but the record has been remarkably volatile.
After a shaky start to the decade, when many Australians fell behind compared to the returns of cash investments in the aftermath of the collapse of the tech bubble, Australians enjoyed a four year period of uninterrupted gains in their super, after which the onset of the first global financial crisis took hold.
Growth funds especially were hit in the financial years 2008 and 2009, posting negative returns of more than 6 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.
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Australian Regulators Warn Brokers To Be Suspicious Of Portfolio Manager Window Dressing
The Australian Stock Exchange, which with ASIC acts as a corporate regulator says it intends to monitor portfolio and mutual fund managers closely, as it seeks to stamp out the practice of window dressing.
Window dressing typically occurs at the end of the financial year and is a deliberate strategy managers engage in of price manipulation which dresses up the performance of the portfolio or fund before presenting the performance to clients or unit holders.
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Fund Managers Bullish On Equities According To HSBC
A new survey by global banking giant HSBC suggests that fund managers are more bullish on equities today, than they were three months ago, and are maintaining their holdings of Australian equities steady.
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Macquarie Guidance Disappoints Market
Nicholas Moore, chief executive of Australian investment banking major Macquarie Group says that proposed changes to regulatory framework had created an environment of uncertainty in the banking industry, whilst the investment bank announced a profit forecast that was below market expectations.
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Westpac Launches Revamped Online Trading Platform
Australian banking major Westpac Banking Corporation has joined its rivals in improving its online trading platform as the lender gears up to grow its client based by as much as 8 per cent during 2010.
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Big Four Banks Expected To Deliver Strong Profit Growth
The Australian banking sector can expect a broad based re-rating after CBA surprised the market and issued unaudited profits that were in excess of analyst expectations. Most lenders are now expected to post improved earnings forecasts.
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CBA Breaks Silence On Dubai World Exposure Says No Material Loss Expected
Australian banking major Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) broke its silence Monday and issued an announcement confirming that the lender does not have a large enough exposure to incur a material loss from a possible default by troubled sovereign holding company Dubai World.
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Super Funds Record First Decline in Eight Months
October was the first month of negative returns for superannuation (super) funds, after seven consecutive months of gains, which is the first suggestion that the recovery in the pension fund industry may be faltering.
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AMP May Itself Become Target In The Wake of AXA Asia Pacific Bid
Shares of Australian wealth manager AMP surged over 4 per cent during Tuesdays trading session, driven by speculation that the company itself could be the target of a takeover, after launching an audacious $11 billion joint acquisition attempt with Paris based AXA SA for AXA Asia Pacific Holdings (APH).
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