I have moved more than 40% of my equities to fixed income category mainly because I am my own fund manager and have less time monitoring them especially since market volatility seems to be never ending.
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Putting my money in unit trust funds and forget about it, is the best thing that I have done over 10 years. The capital growth has been encouraging and I will continue with the conservative strategy for my retirement nest egg.
As for my remaining equities, I have two that are doing exceedingly well in the telco sector (MAXIS) and the healthcare segment (IHH). MAXIS under the new CEO, ex-DIGI Morten Lundal has shown big improvements in its share price from 6.39 over a year ago to a close of 7.27 at the end of 2013. The annual 40 sen dividend given quarterly is truly appreciated by investors like me who use it for topping up our mutual funds.
IHH has gone from 2.90 to 3.86 at the close of market on New Year's Eve. It was at its peak of 4.16 a couple of months ago. I am still holding this stock as I feel its growth will continue with the expansion of its services overseas. Barring any huge obstacles, it would start to perform better as its gearing is decreasing. I am upbeat about the stock when looking at KPJ, another healthcare equity which took a number of years to increase its value. I am prepared for the long haul with IHH though my capital has increased by more than 34%. IHH is yet to issue any dividends.
My last three stocks are not doing that well. My TM stock has been hovering over the lower end of 5.00 for months on end and only recently, following some collaboration announcements that it has crept up to 5.45-5.55. My paper loss is still substantial as I re purchased it at 5.73 following my total disposal of the shares at 6.23 pre-capital repayment of 30 sen per share in 2012. I am sticking to this behemoth because of historical capital appreciation through regular dividends of 22 sen per share. In fact, my current paper loss has been compensated by earlier capital growth. Sometimes whining can stop complacency.
My most recent acquisitions are WPRTS and PRTASCO, in transport and construction sectors respectively. As most of you keen investors have noticed, the former is doing poorly post-listing. From being a joyous applicant of its IPO, I am rather crestfallen with the stock. One of the major stockholders even repurchased more than 200k of the stocks at market value but his action is seen as insufficient to prop up the stock's price. Maybe the investing public would take notice if he had bought 200 mil units? Big deal.
Aha, even my better half is wondering why I bought PRTASCO, the company which is good at road maintenance and given successive contracts for their speciality. I bought the stock because it gives dividends regularly. I note that it never fails to give dividends of 5 to 6 sen annually since 2007. In fact the stock price was only 0.95 sen a couple of years ago and now it has uptrended to 1.35-1.42 and yours truly jumped in at 1.42! I had bought the stock before in 2012 at 0.99 and had disposed it after a couple of dividend issues due to my impatience.
And now I am renewing my relationship with the stock on the basis that it has been given a contract worth some millions by the government to build staff quarters. But the current cost-cutting measures by the government could affect the income generation of the company. I am, however looking forward to get my first dividend at 4 sen per share credited into my bank account tomorrow 02 Jan 2014. That somehow reduces the amount of my paper loss on the stock.
My game plan for 2014 is to re-invest my overseas fund into PNB unit trusts, eye those IPOs carefully and look for an opportunity to invest in selected plantation stocks. I am taking the risk of investing in plantation sector because though the CPO price is predicted to increase in 2014 due to the biodiesel oil downstream products, it might not necessarily result in higher price for the respective stocks.
But that is how things are when you are an investor. Look for the best, accept the unexpected and move on regardless.
Happy investing and may 2014 be more generous.
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