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In view of current uncertainties still lingering around investment universe, bond was considered as one of the asset class that most investors seeks to preserved their asset value, albeit lower risk. Just as the name of the fund, it's a  flexible bond fund  which has an interesting early repayment features. Let's have a look. The Fund is a 3-year close-ended bond fund that aims to provide annual income distribution throughout the duration of the fund. To achieve the investment objective, the fund intends to invest its NAV in a portfolio of domestic and/or foreign sovereign issued bonds and corporate bonds. Domestic bonds: --> minimum credit rating will be “A” rated by RAM or MARC’s equivalent.  Foreign bonds: --> minimum credit rating will be “A” rated by their respective local credit rating agencies which denotes strong capacity to meet financial commitments and/or “BB” rated by S&P or Moody’s equivalent at the time of investment. As t...

India recently enacted policies to allow overseas investors to hold a larger stake in companies in various industries including airlines, insurance, retail and consumer. This news caused the rupee to cross a five-month high and the benchmark Sensex to rise 1%, as markets received a glimpse of the policy reform they have been seeking. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) stated that India received FDI of approximately US$1.33 billion this May. This makes the cumulative FDI inflows for the months April-May 2012 US$ 3.18 billion.  Keeping with its reformatory trend, the government stated that it would sell 10% of its stake in Oil India, 12.5% of its stake in Nalco, an aluminum maker. This push towards privatization will likely be seen as a positive one by foreign institutional investors.   The services industry received the majority of the April-May inflows followed by the pharmaceutical, metallurgical, construction, housing and power industries. T...

President Barack Obama and his challenger Governor Mitt Romney recently participated in the first of three presidential debates. The two debated a variety of issues, but one topic that came up more than any other was our economy.   Romney called out Obama for essentially dropping the ball in his first term as President, citing increasing unemployment and a stagnant economy.   Obama spent nearly $800 billion dollars in stimulus programs but still failed to keep the unemployment rate below 10 percent.   Furthermore, Romney discussed how Obama’s 4 years as president consisted of multi trillion dollar deficits and projects to borrow nearly a trillion dollars next year.   Governor Romney, for the first time since he received the nomination, seemed strong.   He persuaded Americans that his solution to revitalize the economy, focusing on energy independence, fiscal consolidation, and lowering tax rates will decrease our national debt and consequently stimulate ou...

Hmmm... Yup, the title is correct. We at Finance Malaysia blog would like to hear the views from Foreign analysts only this time. Why? Because they tend to be more independent (we think), and we know that readers like you can easily access to local research reports. So, we made the decision to only show you what is written by foreign analysts as below: Phillip Capital Management : An earnest & all-around Budget? "People’s livelihood, affordable housing and tax issues topped the pre-budget wish lists. Weeks before the announcement, there were many discussions about the Budget 2013 in the media and various conjectures about the budget outcome. Everybody in town was anxiously waiting for the Prime Minister’s speech to reveal the Budget 2013, hoping the wish in one’s heart and mind will come true. TV camera shots have shown that people have been in high spirits cheering for the Santa Claus during the speech. We think Barisan Nasional has successfully drawn up the budget ...

Lance Easley is a Vice President of small business banking for Bank of America in California. Just over a week ago, he was merely a little well known employee in the financial services industry. After last week’s Seattle Seahawks/Green Bay Packers game, however, he has infamously become a celebrity almost instantly overnight. Yes, we are talking about the same Lance Easley who served as a replacement referee for the game, signalling the highly controversial touchdown on the Hail Mary pass by the Seahawks. No doubt we have all read our fair share of Facebook statuses and Tweets from angry NFL fans wishing for the quick return of locked-out referees. As Yashwant pointed out in an earlier blog post, the NFL is a clear loser in this situation due to compromise in the integrity of both the brand and the game. Believe it or not though, there is a hidden winner: the television networks. In fact, it can be argued that Lance Easley is merely fulfilling his duty as a member of capitalist America...

(Picture of Philip Anschutz and the LA Kings after the team won the Stanley Cup earlier this year) There has been a lot of buzz lately in the media and entertainment sector about the sale of Anschutz Entertainment Group, or more commonly known as AEG. Now for all the sports fans out there, you are probably more familiar with this firm than you might think. AEG owns sports teams including the LA Kings, who just recently won their first Stanley Cup, the LA Galaxy, with star players Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane, and David Beckham, as well as part of the LA Lakers. In addition, AEG also owns the Staples Center in LA, the famous O 2 Arena in London, as well as a number of other venues in various cities and countries. So the sale of this giant empire has attracted a lot of attention. Currently, AEG is controlled by the 72-year-old billionaire Philip Anschutz from Denver. The company has hired Blackstone Group as their financial adviser on the deal and the President of AEG, Cannon Harvey, ha...

Why are France and Spain (and everywhere else in Europe) in deep fiscal trouble?  -- Too many promises by government without any plans to come up with the money to pay for the promises. So, what are France and Spain doing?  Spain's recently proposed 'austerity' budget includes a one percent increase across the board to pensioners.  Paying pensions is Spain's number one government expense.  So, why not make it even higher?  How about France?  Newly elected Socialist President Francois Hollande took quick action to move France's retirement age to 60 from 62.  He may as well have moved it to 40 for what little chance France has of paying future retirees. No austerity plan in Europe touches things like retirement, public employee largesse, and laws that mandate hours and rule out employee terminations.  So, in reality, nothing of any real significance is taking place except that the Eurozone is taking on more debt and rolling the printing presses. You...