Noble Group: As good as its name
I firmly believe that the commodities boom will continue at least for the next two years. The question then is how to benefit from this boom. Other than investing directly into the commodities itself (which Jim Rogers advocates) I would recommend investing in companies that deal with commodities themselves.
Of the companies surveyed, I have found Noble Group to be one of the companies very much worth investing in. The company operates a global supply chain in commodities such as coffee, sugar, iron, ethanol and coal. The company will be holding its AGM end of this 30th of April to decide on yearly dividends US2.48 cents per share. In addition, the Board is also proposing a stock bonus in the ratio of 1 for 5. This year, Noble earned a spot on the new benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) and received a BBB- rating (investment grade) from Fitch. I will also elaborate in the letters to come why I have pinned such high hopes on Noble.
(SPC is also another company worth looking into. Unfortunately it had missed my radar in the latest rally.)
Previous Calls on Gold
Please be informed that I have sold off all my holdings in Gold. After surging more than 30% from the first gold call, its upside might be slow. There is quite a high possibility that the price of the metal will continue going up albeit slower. For the time being, I have chosen other vehicles which yield faster returns.
Up to Now
We have definitely come some way since the beginning of the subprime crisis last April. A chapter in the entire crisis had ended with the collapse of Bear Sterns and its fire-sale to JP Morgan. No doubt, it is far too early to call an end to the credit crunch/ financial bubble. Yet I would safely say that this would be an interesting time to test the market with small positions before the next cockroach emerges from under the fridge.
The Week Ahead
After a nerve-wrecking week of seeing the financial giants report their quarterly earnings, the market so far as been resilient, pointing to a positive shift in sentiment. Next up would be earning results from the tech stocks. We had just seen Google reporting strong Q1 results (46 percent revenue growth) and hope for similar strength from the rest of the tech counters. Counters reporting earnings this week are Yahoo (tonight) Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.com
The STI has been climbing slowly and we might come to a resistance at the 3300 region. Personally I do have a few positions and am skeptical of a sustained upward movement. Let’s see how the market performs.
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