Happy Moon Cake Festival 2013

Wishing all my relatives and friends a Happy Moon Cake Festival today 19 September 2013. The celebration also goes by the name of Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival for the uninitiated. I prefer the "cake" name because it's synonymous with my childhood memories of growing up in Penang and seeing Aunties busily making them and how I used to gorge on those sticky cakes!  Nostalgic....

When you miss your loved ones... look at the moon and imagine,
 it's better than being on Skype!

Yes, celebrating the Moon Festival has a certain feel to it as you would be gazing at the full moon and think of your loved ones and friends far away and they would in turn gaze at the same heavenly body, how touching! This practice has, however, been somewhat usurped by modern age technology. But I still prefer gazing at the full moon.

Intricately patterned

Our friend the owner of a resort in Kota Kinabalu used to send us these delicious cakes with exquisite patterns every year of the Festival and I would look around the place trying to find ones just as lovely as a return gift. Missed those cakes of his as he is now in Timor Leste, developing yet another resort!

Delectable!

Mooncakes, we are indeed spoilt for choice with their various shapes,designs and fillings made possible by commercialisation. Anyway the Festival will not be complete without their distinctive presence. Look for those with less sugar.

AS1M 2013 - Fourth Dividend Declaration at 6.7 Sen

Today Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) through its subsidiary, ASNB (Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad) has declared a 6.7 sen dividend per unit of AS1M for financial year ending on 30 September 2013. According to PNB Chairman, Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, RM593.06million, an increase of 30.9% over last year's RM453.03million will be distributed to 365,355 unitholders who have subscribed to 9.28 billion units of AS1M. The dividend will automatically be credited into unitholders' accounts on 1 October and will be based on the average monthly minimum balance held.

The Chairman of PNB, Tun Ahmad Sarji (L) and CEO  Tan Sri Hamad
at the dividend declaration for AS1M 2013
 (Photo by BERNAMA)

Though it is higher by 0.10 sen compared to last financial year 2012 at 6.60 sen, I am rather disappointed that the income distribution is less than those of ASD and ASM at 6.8 sen per unit declared in June and February respectively.

I note that the BURSA counters held by AS1M are on the whole the same as those in ASD and ASM the only thing I could think of is the timing of the income distribution. For those two unit trusts, the counters were profitable before the Feds gave hints of ceasing their quantitative easing activities. Then stock markets the world over started reacting the middle of year causing volatility. For example, TM one of the common counters for PNB investments for all its unit trusts started to decline. This appears to indicate that foreign investors are beginning to withdraw their funds from our market putting pressure on selective stock prices.

The difference in the rate of distribution is substantial when a unitholder owns, say more than one million units of AS1M. Anyway, this 10 billion fixed price unit trust has a quota of 50%, 30%,15% and 5% for Bumiputeras,Chinese,Indians and other Malaysians respectively. Only the Bumi's portion is still available for subscription and that also look like only 0.72 billion units are left at current figures of unit holdings underscoring the high demand for this PNB unit trust.

Notwithstanding the lower comparative income distribution rate, historically for AS1M, this year's dividend is the highest since its launching in 2009 as follows:

YEAR                  DIVIDEND RATE
2010                             6.38
2011                             6.50
2012                             6.60
2013                             6.70

And so this is the final dividend declaration for PNB unit trusts for 2013. The next one will be in January 2014 for ASB and ASN and I would like to reserve my prediction on their income distribution rates!

Sources: BERNAMA, Businesstimes

Juan Gabriel - Asi Fue

Relaxing with Juan Gabriel, the evergreen Mexican singer and song composer. He has lasted all these years with this music which makes you want to move around the floor and sway and let yourself go and be free of any tension.

Check out his "Hasta que te conoci", the audience response is just tremendous and his interaction with them is nothing but spontaneous. Good music,natural singer,sensitive composer and responsive audience. What else do we want?

Good music is truly invigorating,refreshing and rejuvenating and believe it, healing as well. Have you all heard of Music Therapy?

MALAYSIA - 50 Years old today- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Together We Prosper

Today 16 September  in 1963 Malaysia was formed when Malaya (Malay Peninsula) , Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak came together to be one country but Singapore left us in 1965.

And today this country turns 50.

The significance of this date was largely ignored for some years till the people in Sabah and Sarawak promoted its significance vigorously. Without the two East Malaysian states there would not be MALAYSIA but just MALAYA. A fair argument indeed.

So let us celebrate today's date Malaysians! 50 years old and still together, fantastico!

Happy Malaysia Day!

Raul Di Blasio - Aguas de Invierno

At last I got hold of this musical piece which I used to love hearing and yes, dancing the Salsa with it at a five-star hotel I once stayed for two weeks while undergoing a course. It kept playing non-stop and no one seemed to know its title. It's very nostalgic for me because this has brought a flood of memories of things,foods, colleagues, guests' greeting on the corridor and helpful staffs.

I have not realised that it is performed by Raul di Blasio, a famous Brazilian pianist whose music Corazon De Nino is my all time piano musical piece favourite. I must thank the uploader for sharing this.

AMB Value Trust Fund (AMBVTF) - 2013 Income Distribution

Despite Bursa FBM KLCI against which AMBVTF is benchmarked,  having an uptrend this year, the 2013 gross income distribution declared on 06 September 2013 did not assume the same direction. Last year's distribution at 10 sen per unit was the last of a string of stellar performance since 2009 for the fund.

 All the same, the seven (7) sen per unit declared gross income distribution is translated into about 11% total return based on the calculation of capital return and income return. This is less than last financial year (2011/2012) as there was a decrease of about 8% in NAV recorded over the 2012/2013 financial year. Will have to wait for the report to see the actual total return.

The third week of July 2013 saw the NAV registering a high of 0.5699 and it gradually went down along with the  market's downward movement and just before the declaration of dividend,  it was at 0.5444 on 30 August. As expected after the dividend payment, the NAV decreased to 0.4709 on 02 September. And that was time to accumulate more units be it at 6.5% sales charge or if you acquired it online from FundSupermart, the sales charge is lower at 2%. My calculation shows that if I purchased 50k units at 0.4709 at sales charge of 6.5%, it is cheaper than if I were to purchase the same number of units at a higher NAV, say 0.5000 even at a discount rate of 3% sales charge.

As my initial fund is purchased from Maybank, I have decided to stick with it mainly owing to familiarity with the banker who goes out of her way to remind me regularly when the best time to purchase the units. The personal touch is important.

As stated in the prospectus the main focus of this fund is for capital growth as opposed to income distribution and the medium term period suggested is three to five years. The reason I like about this fund is the compulsory reinvestment of units generated by annual dividends. This suits me fine as I have set my target period of investment.

From May to November 2012, I had made four purchases at 3% sales charge. My first gross income distribution, duly reinvested, was at 10 sen per unit in September 2012. And as at end of financial year on 31 August 2013, with the second reinvested income distribution of seven sen minus fixed charges, my capital appreciation is approximately 15%. It is clear that  investing in this fund has given me  double the returns of all the other individual ASNB funds over a 15 -month period.

The return has motivated me to remain with the fund for the longer term despite the following examples of specific risks faced by AMBVTF (or any other mutual fund for that matter) :

• Market - volatility
• Individual Stock - fluctuation
• Credit/Default - on fixed income securities
• Interest Rate - up and down
• Currency - changing in value
• Country - socio-political turmoil
• Manager - non-compliance/fraud

Suffice to say the Fund has in place mitigation measures to reduce those risks.

True indeed!

But, really if you are worried about the risks, you should put your money regularly in the bank at 2-3% interest per annum with PIDM protection ( make sure you know the set maximum savings though). You may sleep better but you will have to work harder to create wealth and take longer to achieve your financial freedom.

Happy investing!

Beautiful Music in Any Language is Just As Wonderful

I came across this beautiful piece of music and would like to share with my musically-inclined blog readers. It's Japanese and I don't understand a word of what the singers are saying but the arrangement and melody coupled with the three groups of singers each with their unique sound are really entertaining for me. I heard it countless times and really enjoyed the medley sung with such gentleness and amazing intonation.... loved it!