Introduction: KLCI

The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) is a capitalization-weighted stock market index. Introduced in 1986, it is now known as the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI. The enhancements to adopt FTSE Bursa Malaysia Index methodology were implemented on Monday, 6 July 2009.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI comprises the largest 30 companies listed on the Malaysian Main Market by full market capitalisation that meet the eligibility requirements of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Index Ground Rules.
The two main eligibility requirements stated in the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Index Ground Rules are the free float and liquidity requirements as indicated below :-

• Free Float
Each company is required to have a minimum free float of 15%. The free float excludes restricted shareholding like cross holdings, significant long term holdings by founders, their families and/or directors, restricted employee share schemes, government holdings and portfolio investments subject to a lock in clause, for the duration of that clause. A free float factor is applied to the market capitalisation of each company in accordance with the banding specified in the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Ground Rules. The factor is used to determine the attribution of the company’s market activities in the index.

• Liquidity
A liquidity screen is applied to ensure the company’s stocks are liquid enough to be traded. Companies must ensure that at least 10% of their free float adjusted shares in issue is traded in the 12 months prior to an annual index review in December.
It contains 30 companies from the Main Market with approximately 900 to 1000 listed companies. The index has a base value of 100 as of January 2, 1977

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur_Composite_Index

Leveraged strategies

Stock that a trader does not actually own may be traded using short selling; margin buying may be used to purchase stock with borrowed funds; or, derivatives may be used to control large blocks of stocks for a much smaller amount of money than would be required by outright purchase or sale.

Short selling

Main article: Short selling
In short selling, the trader borrows stock (usually from his brokerage which holds its clients' shares or its own shares on account to lend to short sellers) then sells it on the market, hoping for the price to fall. The trader eventually buys back the stock, making money if the price fell in the meantime and losing money if it rose. Exiting a short position by buying back the stock is called "covering a short position." This strategy may also be used by unscrupulous traders in illiquid or thinly traded markets to artificially lower the price of a stock. Hence most markets either prevent short selling or place restrictions on when and how a short sale can occur. The practice of naked shorting is illegal in most (but not all) stock markets.

Margin buying

Main article: margin buying

In margin buying, the trader borrows money (at interest) to buy a stock and hopes for it to rise. Most industrialized countries have regulations that require that if the borrowing is based on collateral from other stocks the trader owns outright, it can be a maximum of a certain percentage of those other stocks' value. In the United States, the margin requirements have been 50% for many years (that is, if you want to make a $1000 investment, you need to put up $500, and there is often a maintenance margin below the $500).

A margin call is made if the total value of the investor's account cannot support the loss of the trade. (Upon a decline in the value of the margined securities additional funds may be required to maintain the account's equity, and with or without notice the margined security or any others within the account may be sold by the brokerage to protect its loan position. The investor is responsible for any shortfall following such forced sales.)

Regulation of margin requirements (by the Federal Reserve) was implemented after the Crash of 1929. Before that, speculators typically only needed to put up as little as 10 percent (or even less) of the total investment represented by the stocks purchased. Other rules may include the prohibition of free-riding: putting in an order to buy stocks without paying initially (there is normally a three-day grace period for delivery of the stock), but then selling them (before the three-days are up) and using part of the proceeds to make the original payment (assuming that the value of the stocks has not declined in the interim).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market

Importance of Stock Market

The main trading room of the Tokyo Stock Exchange,where trading is currently completed through computers.


The stock market is one of the most important sources for companies to raise money. This allows businesses to be publicly traded, or raise additional capital for expansion by selling shares of ownership of the company in a public market. The liquidity that an exchange provides affords investors the ability to quickly and easily sell securities. This is an attractive feature of investing in stocks, compared to other less liquid investments such as real estate.

History has shown that the price of shares and other assets is an important part of the dynamics of economic activity, and can influence or be an indicator of social mood. An economy where the stock market is on the rise is considered to be an up-and-coming economy. In fact, the stock market is often considered the primary indicator of a country's economic strength and development.

Rising share prices, for instance, tend to be associated with increased business investment and vice versa. Share prices also affect the wealth of households and their consumption. Therefore, central banks tend to keep an eye on the control and behavior of the stock market and, in general, on the smooth operation of financial system functions. Financial stability is the raison d'être of central banks.
Exchanges also act as the clearinghouse for each transaction, meaning that they collect and deliver the shares, and guarantee payment to the seller of a security. This eliminates the risk to an individual buyer or seller that the counterparty could default on the transaction.

The smooth functioning of all these activities facilitates economic growth in that lower costs and enterprise risks promote the production of goods and services as well as employment. In this way the financial system contributes to increased prosperity.

An important aspect of modern financial markets, however, including the stock markets, is absolute discretion. For example, American stock markets see more unrestrained acceptance of any firm than in smaller markets. For example, Chinese firms that possess little or no perceived value to American society profit American bankers on Wall Street, as they reap large commissions from the placement, as well as the Chinese company which yields funds to invest in China.

However, these companies accrue no intrinsic value to the long-term stability of the American economy, but rather only short-term profits to American business men and the Chinese; although, when the foreign company has a presence in the new market, this can benefit the market's citizens. Conversely, there are very few large foreign corporations listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange TSX, Canada's largest stock exchange. This discretion has insulated Canada to some degree to worldwide financial conditions. In order for the stock markets to truly facilitate economic growth via lower costs and better employment, great attention must be given to the foreign participants being allowed in.

Relation of the stock market to the modern financial system
The financial systems in most western countries has undergone a remarkable transformation. One feature of this development is disintermediation. A portion of the funds involved in saving and financing, flows directly to the financial markets instead of being routed via the traditional bank lending and deposit operations. The general public's heightened interest in investing in the stock market, either directly or through mutual funds, has been an important component of this process.

Statistics show that in recent decades shares have made up an increasingly large proportion of households' financial assets in many countries. In the 1970s, in Sweden, deposit accounts and other very liquid assets with little risk made up almost 60 percent of households' financial wealth, compared to less than 20 percent in the 2000s. The major part of this adjustment in financial portfolios has gone directly to shares but a good deal now takes the form of various kinds of institutional investment for groups of individuals, e.g., pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, insurance investment of premiums, etc.

The trend towards forms of saving with a higher risk has been accentuated by new rules for most funds and insurance, permitting a higher proportion of shares to bonds. Similar tendencies are to be found in other industrialized countries. In all developed economic systems, such as the European Union, the United States, Japan and other developed nations, the trend has been the same: saving has moved away from traditional (government insured) bank deposits to more risky securities of one sort or another.

The stock market, individual investors, and financial risk
Riskier long-term saving requires that an individual possess the ability to manage the associated increased risks. Stock prices fluctuate widely, in marked contrast to the stability of (government insured) bank deposits or bonds. This is something that could affect not only the individual investor or household, but also the economy on a large scale. The following deals with some of the risks of the financial sector in general and the stock market in particular. This is certainly more important now that so many newcomers have entered the stock market, or have acquired other 'risky' investments (such as 'investment' property, i.e., real estate and collectables).
With each passing year, the noise level in the stock market rises. Television commentators, financial writers, analysts, and market strategists are all overtaking each other to get investors' attention. At the same time, individual investors, immersed in chat rooms and message boards, are exchanging questionable and often misleading tips. Yet, despite all this available information, investors find it increasingly difficult to profit. Stock prices skyrocket with little reason, then plummet just as quickly, and people who have turned to investing for their children's education and their own retirement become frightened. Sometimes there appears to be no rhyme or reason to the market, only folly.

This is a quote from the preface to a published biography about the long-term value-oriented stock investor Warren Buffett. Buffett began his career with $100, and $100,000 from seven limited partners consisting of Buffett's family and friends. Over the years he has built himself a multi-billion-dollar fortune. The quote illustrates some of what has been happening in the stock market during the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

Source:

Trading

Participants in the stock market range from small individual stock investors to large hedge fund traders, who can be based anywhere. Their orders usually end up with a professional at a stock exchange, who executes the order.

Some exchanges are physical locations where transactions are carried out on a trading floor, by a method known as open outcry. This type of auction is used in stock exchanges and commodity exchanges where traders may enter "verbal" bids and offers simultaneously. The other type of stock exchange is a virtual kind, composed of a network of computers where trades are made electronically via traders.

Actual trades are based on an auction market model where a potential buyer bids a specific price for a stock and a potential seller asks a specific price for the stock. (Buying or selling at market means you will accept any ask price or bid price for the stock, respectively.) When the bid and ask prices match, a sale takes place, on a first-come-first-served basis if there are multiple bidders or askers at a given price.

The purpose of a stock exchange is to facilitate the exchange of securities between buyers and sellers, thus providing a marketplace (virtual or real). The exchanges provide real-time trading information on the listed securities, facilitating price discovery.


The New York Stock Exchange.
The New York Stock Exchange is a physical exchange, also referred to as a listed exchange — only stocks listed with the exchange may be traded. Orders enter by way of exchange members and flow down to a floor broker, who goes to the floor trading post specialist for that stock to trade the order. The specialist's job is to match buy and sell orders using open outcry. If a spread exists, no trade immediately takes place--in this case the specialist should use his/her own resources (money or stock) to close the difference after his/her judged time. Once a trade has been made the details are reported on the "tape" and sent back to the brokerage firm, which then notifies the investor who placed the order. Although there is a significant amount of human contact in this process, computers play an important role, especially for so-called "program trading".

The NASDAQ is a virtual listed exchange, where all of the trading is done over a computer network. The process is similar to the New York Stock Exchange. However, buyers and sellers are electronically matched. One or more NASDAQ market makers will always provide a bid and ask price at which they will always purchase or sell 'their' stock.

The Paris Bourse, now part of Euronext, is an order-driven, electronic stock exchange. It was automated in the late 1980s. Prior to the 1980s, it consisted of an open outcry exchange. Stockbrokers met on the trading floor or the Palais Brongniart. In 1986, the CATS trading system was introduced, and the order matching process was fully automated.

From time to time, active trading (especially in large blocks of securities) have moved away from the 'active' exchanges. Securities firms, led by UBS AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Credit Suisse Group, already steer 12 percent of U.S. security trades away from the exchanges to their internal systems. That share probably will increase to 18 percent by 2010 as more investment banks bypass the NYSE and NASDAQ and pair buyers and sellers of securities themselves, according to data compiled by Boston-based Aite Group LLC, a brokerage-industry consultant.

Now that computers have eliminated the need for trading floors like the Big Board's, the balance of power in equity markets is shifting. By bringing more orders in-house, where clients can move big blocks of stock anonymously, brokers pay the exchanges less in fees and capture a bigger share of the $11 billion a year that institutional investors pay in trading commissions as well as the surplus of the century had taken place.

Source: Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market

Stock Market (Share)

A stock market or equity market is a public market (a loose network of economic transactions, not a physical facility or discrete entity) for the trading of company stock (shares) and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.

The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion USD at the beginning of October 2008.The total world derivatives market has been estimated at about $791 trillion face or nominal value, 11 times the size of the entire world economy.The value of the derivatives market, because it is stated in terms of notional values, cannot be directly compared to a stock or a fixed income security, which traditionally refers to an actual value. Moreover, the vast majority of derivatives 'cancel' each other out (i.e., a derivative 'bet' on an event occurring is offset by a comparable derivative 'bet' on the event not occurring).

Many such relatively illiquid securities are valued as marked to model, rather than an actual market price.

The stocks are listed and traded on stock exchanges which are entities of a corporation or mutual organization specialized in the business of bringing buyers and sellers of the organizations to a listing of stocks and securities together. The largest stock market in the United States, by market cap, is the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE. In Canada, the largest stock market is the Toronto Stock Exchange. Major European examples of stock exchanges include the London Stock Exchange, Paris Bourse, and the Deutsche Börse. Asian examples include the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and the Bombay Stock Exchange. In Latin America, there are such exchanges as the BM&F Bovespa and the BMV.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market

US stocks recover from early losses

Sources :US stocks recover from early losses

NEW YORK: A late push gave stock indexes moderate gains Tuesday as investors brushed off news that consumer confidence dropped to its lowest level since February.

A big jump in earnings from Walgreen Co. and another corporate acquisition gave investors enough confidence to extend a four-week rally. Stocks were mixed for much of the day but struggled higher at the finish.

With only two trading days left in September, the Dow Jones industrial average is on track for its best September since 1939 with a gain of 8.4 percent in the month so far. It's still up only 4.1 percent for the year.

Stocks got off to a bad start after the Conference Board said its September reading on consumer confidence fell sharply from August and came in well below forecasts. Mostly positive readings from economic data on manufacturing, home sales and jobs have helped push stocks higher this month after a dismal performance on August.

Scott Rostan, founder of Training The Street, which provides courses in financial modeling and corporate valuation, said the small move in stocks compared to the big decline in confidence was indicative of a growing schism between consumers and traders.

"There's a big dichotomy between Main Street sentiment and Wall Street sentiment," Rostan said. Right now, traders are more focused on sentiment and confidence among corporate executives than consumers, he said.

Drug developer Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings said Tuesday it will buy Qualitest Pharmaceuticals for $1.2 billion. That comes a day after major companies including Unilever NV and Southwest Airlines Co. announced deals. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it was pursuing buying a South African company.

In other corporate news, Walgreen Co. soared 11.4 percent after the drugstore chain reported income that easily beat forecasts. Meanwhile technology stocks were being dragged down on disappointment that Research in Motion Ltd. said it would not roll out its competitor to Apple Inc.'s iPad, called the PlayBook, until the beginning of 2011.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 46.10, or 0.4 percent, to 10,858.14. It's up 8.4 percent so far in September, and extraordinary showing for a month that is historically a weak one for the market.

Investors are "looking beyond today's news at broader indications a double-dip (recession) is more and more remote," said Joe Heider, a principal at Rehmann Financial.

If the Dow can climb above 11,000 it would be a strong indication the market is ready to break out of the broad trading range it's been stuck in since hitting its 2010 high in late April, Heider said.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 5.54, or 0.5 percent, to 1,147.70, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 9.82, or 0.4 percent, to 2,379.59.

Treasury prices rose after the weak report on consumer confidence, driving interest rates lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which is often used to set interest rates on loans, fell to 2.47 percent from 2.53 percent late Monday.

Apple shares fell $4.30 to $286.86 on heavy volume. Its price plummeted $16.77, or 5.7 percent, in the first three minutes of trading before quickly recovering most of those losses.

Endo Pharmaceuticals shares rose $2.49, or 8.1 percent, to $33.10. Research in Motion shares fell $1.45, or 3 percent, to $46.91. Walgreen rose $3.46 to $33.81.

Rising stocks outpaced falling ones two to one on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1 billion shares. - AP


Latest NYSE, NASDAQ and other business news, from AP-Wire

Your Benefits With Unit Trusts

Professional Investment Management

A unit trust combines the capital of many investors to employ experienced management in purchasing securities of many companies. The management of a unit trust provides diversification of investments and supervision which few investors could individually afford. Investment management is a full time job which requires specialised knowledge and training.

The most common investing strategy employed by fund management companies is a combination of the ‘top-down’ approach, ‘bottom-up’ approach or a combination of both. The top-down approach takes into consideration factors such as macroeconomic outlook, the current business cycle, interest rate trends and other economic factors. Meanwhile, the bottom-up approach, also known as stock picking, looks closely at the fundamental strengths of a company based on management credibility, financial track record and market share. For fixed income securities, the key factors are credit quality, interest rate risks and managing the bond portfolio’s exposure to changes in interest rates.

Diversification

Diversification involves the process of spreading risk over a broad portfolio of stocks and bonds in different companies, sectors, countries or regions. This can only be done with substantial amounts of monies to buy a wide variety of stocks.

Unit trusts facilitate the diversification process by providing small investors with an avenue to pool their savings for the purchase of a diversified portfolio of stocks and/or bonds that will bring higher potential returns at lower risks to unitholders compared with investing directly in stock markets.

Liquidity

Unitholders may redeem all or part of their units on any business day and the unit trust management company will be obliged to purchase them. This means unit trusts come with high liquidity whereby they can be readily converted into cash. In fact, the Securities Commission requires that investors must receive their monies within 10 days from the receipt of the repurchase request by the fund management company, and the value of the redemption will be based on the price determined at the close of the business day in which the request for redemption is received.

Advantages of Compounding

Many unit trust funds provide facilities for investors to reinvest their distributions. For those who opted for distribution reinvestment, the fund will automatically credit the distributions into the account, rather than sending distribution warrants. This process of reinvesting the income from the original investment and also of reinvesting the return on the total accumulating investments is called compounding.

To illustrate, let’s say you invested RM100 at the beginning of every month at 25 with an interest growth of 10% per annum. By age 65, your investment would have grown to RM638,000! The key element to compounding is time - the longer the period of time, the greater the growth.

Regularity of Investing

Many people do not have substantial sums of cash available to invest, but they can develop an investment account by investing smaller sums regularly in a unit trust.

Most unit trust funds have plans available to make it possible for smaller investors to invest relatively small amounts monthly. It is easy and inexpensive for an individual to acquire units through deposits of RM100 or more a month in a unit trust fund.

Fund Administration

Few people have the experience, time or facility to properly set up an investment programme, much less to supervise it constantly. Unit trust managers are professionals who are devoted to solving the investment problems of people from all walks of life.

Unit trusts relieve their investors of the need to handle their own securities transactions. Investors in unit trust funds are not obliged to concern themselves with matters such as:

1. Obtaining quotations on securities being bought and sold

2. Delivery and payment for the securities involved in each transaction

3. Safekeeping of cash and securities

4. Accounting and bookkeeping procedures, etc

Investors of unit trust funds will receive interim and annual reports which describe:

a. The portfolio of the funds

b. Investment changes made in the period

c. Distributions paid, if any

Sources from : http://www.publicmutual.com.my/article.aspx?id=87

Secret of Investing Unit Trust

There are 3 common strategies used in unit trust investment.

1. Ringgit Cost Averaging

Regularly invest a fix amount in a unit trust fund regardless of market trend is called the Ringgit Cost Averaging strategy. The actual market performance is fluctuating. When the equity market is high, you buy less unit with the same amount. When the market is low, you buy more unit. For long term, you will get much more unit in the lower price range.
2. Portfolio Re-balancing

Portfolio re-balancing is the process of bringing the different asset classes back into proper relationship following a significant change in one or more. More simply stated, it is returning your portfolio to the proper mix of stocks, bonds and cash when they no longer conform to your plan.

Example:

You start investing 50% in equity and 50% in fixed income fund.
1 year later, the equity rises and now your portfolio consist of 80% equity and 20% fixed income fund.
To re-balance your portfolio, you should sell 30% of your total fund in equity and invest it in fixed income fund so that the portfolio is maintained.

This is the simple principle of buying low, and selling high.

3. Switching

Switching will lock in the gain you made in your unit trust investment. Switching fees are low and definitely lower than the upfront service charge. When you are making profit from an equity fund, you can switch it to some lower risk fund to lock the gain instead of selling it for cash. When the market turn low, you can switch it back to equity fund.

Introduction: Unit Trust

A unit trust is a financial vehicle through which individuals may invest their money. The idea behind unit trust is better returns through collective investing. In other words, it means pooling the investments of many investors, individuals and institutions.

Investing in a unit trust offers investors numerous advantages, including:

a. Professional management at a low cost

b. Safety through the spreading of risk (diversification)

c. Liquidity

d. Ease of transaction

e. Capital appreciation/income stream

The operation of a unit trust may be best explained by outlining its similarities with the operation of a bank. Many individuals deposit money in the banks, for which they receive interest. These individuals expect complete liquidity where they are able to withdraw their deposits in cash at any time. The banks employ professional managers to look after the deposits, which are invested. These managers lend the deposits to other individuals requiring funds and a host of other profit generating facilities of the banks.

Similarly, unit trust holders wish to put their money to generate higher returns. The goal of all investments is to make money work harder, either through producing income or growth. Unit trust holders have liquidity because their units can be readily converted into cash at any time. By investing in unit trusts, it allows them to engage professional fund management companies at a low cost to the individual investors. These management companies diversify the investible funds in many different securities and other approved channels to spread the risk.

The unit trust is constituted through a document known as a Deed which brings together and binds the various parties to the deed:

*
The trustee, who holds the assets of the trusts on behalf of the unitholders.
*
The management company, who is the promoter of the scheme and provides investment and administrative expertise as well as markets units to the public.
*
The unitholders who provide the funds for investment and expect to receive the benefits derived from the investment. The effect of dividing the beneficiaries' interest in the trust into units is that their interest is quantified into discrete portions.

Particular advantages of unit trusts over the pooled investments include:

*
The provision of an independent trustee to hold the trust's assets on behalf of unitholders and to watch over their interests on an on-going basis.
*
The deed and prospectus are scrutinised by government authorities, prior to an offer of units being made to the general public. The management companies and trustee are themselves approved by the regulators.
*
A buy back provision or covenant in each deed which requires the management company to redeem an investor's units within a specified time limit at a price determined in accordance with the deed.
*
Provisions in the deed under which the management company and trustee are in a fiduciary position in relation to the trust (i.e. they can only profit in ways laid down under the deed). The investor can determine in advance what costs and charges they will be required to pay to join and stay in the trust.

Source from: http://www.publicmutual.com.my/article.aspx?id=86

Dollar Cost Averaging

Dollar cost averaging is a timing strategy of investing equal dollar amounts regularly and periodically over specific time periods (such as $100 monthly) in a particular investment or portfolio. By doing so, more shares are purchased when prices are low and fewer shares are purchased when prices are high. The point of this is to lower the total average cost per share of the investment, giving the investor a lower overall cost for the shares purchased over time.

Dollar cost averaging is also called DCA and constant dollar plan in the US, pound-cost averaging in the UK, and by the currency-neutral terms unit cost averaging and cost average effect.

Parameters
In dollar cost averaging, the investor decides on three parameters: the fixed amount of money invested each time, the investment frequency, and the time horizon over which all of the investments are made. With a shorter time horizon, the strategy behaves more like lump sum investing. One study has found that the best time horizons when investing in the stock market in terms of balancing return and risk have been 6 or 12 months.
One key component to maximizing profits is to include the strategy of buying during a down trending market, using a scaled formula to buy more as the price falls. Then, as the trend shifts to a higher priced market, use a scaled plan to sell. Using this strategy, one can profit from the relationship between the value of a currency and a commodity or stock.

Source from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_cost_averaging

What is Unit Trust?

A unit trust is a form of collective investment constituted under a trust deed.

Found in Australia, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore[1], and the UK, unit trusts offer access to a wide range of securities.

Unit trusts are open-ended investments; therefore the underlying value of the assets is always directly represented by the total number of units issued multiplied by the unit price less the transaction or management fee charged and any other associated costs. Each fund has a specified investment objective to determine the management aims and limitations.


Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_trust