Third and Final Update of Public Asia Ittikal’s (PAIF) Syariah Compliancy Issue
Thanks to Jean Chai, the age-long issue being discussed (or lack thereof), has been solved.
Jean Chai has brought the matter up to Public Mutual’s ranks and their response has put the issue to rest.
Filed under Unit Trusts (ASB, Public Mutual and others) | Comments (7)Folks, I’m not in any way related to Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB)!
I need to make it clear that I am in no way related to Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB). In fact, I don’t have any relations whatsoever with any other financial institutions in Malaysia, apart from being an investor.
Filed under Unit Trusts (ASB, Public Mutual and others) | Comments (2)Dollar Cost Averaging Lowers Your Break-even Point - Investors’ Perspective
This is the continuation of the first article on Dollar Cost Averaging. That article is located here.
Now, we shall look at dollar cost averaging in action. Consider the scenario below:
Let’s say you invest in a unit trust fund, starting with $1,000, and you add up $1,000 to your investment every month. Let’s consider the scenario below:
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Dollar Cost Averaging: Investors’ Perspective
In this article, we shall look at what exactly is Dollar Cost Averaging. This will be looked at in the perspective of an investor (i.e. persons whose investment horizon is more than 12 months). For traders out there, hang on yeah. I will write about dollar cost averaging for traders pretty soon.
Dollar Cost Averaging is a technique used by many investors out there to multiply the returns from their investment.
Filed under Investment Knowledge, Unit Trusts (ASB, Public Mutual and others) | Comments (4)2nd Update on Public Asia Ittikal Fund (PAIF) Syariah Compliancy Issue
Another update of the Public Asia Ittikal Fund (PAIF) syariah compliancy issue.
The first entry about this issue is here. The second one is here.
I recently received a response from one of my readers. Here it is:
Filed under Unit Trusts (ASB, Public Mutual and others) | Comments (7)Updates on the Public Asia Ittikal Fund (PAIF) Syariah Compliancy Issue
About a couple of weeks back, I wrote an entry about Public Asia Ittikal Fund’s (PAIF) syariah compliancy status. Read about it here.
I did get a response from a unit trust agent a few days after that.
Here’s the excerpt:
“Our investments are looked at by the Securities Commission. Any investment that is not compliant to syariah based, can [be] penalised by the Securities Commission. The Trustee for PAIF, if I am not mistaken, is CIMB.
Public Mutual cannot make an error like that as it would jeopardise the good name of the company and the trust that many Muslim investors have in Public Mutual.”
My response:
Unfortunately, that doesn’t really answer my question.
Filed under Unit Trusts (ASB, Public Mutual and others) | Comments (4)Fund Managers make a lot of mistakes too!
I’m reading this book entitled Taming the Bear by Christopher Tate. Nope, it’s not a book about how to tame bears! It’s a book about trading and how to profit from down trending markets. I haven’t finished it yet but I thought I just had to share this little information with you.
One of the reasons why we invest through unit trust funds is because of the purported professional fund managers right? Well, note this info that I got from the book.
There’s this table in the book that tracks the performance of mutual funds in the United States of America for the period of 1956 to 1988. The table basically analyses the cash-to-asset ratio of the funds, and uses this findings as an indicator to determine whether the fund is bullish or bearish. During those 32 years, they got it right only 4 times.
Interesting huh?
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Public Asia Ittikal Fund not Syariah Compliant?
I’ve been meaning to blog about this topic for quite sometime now.
While I was in Malaysia, I received Public Asia Ittikal Fund’s (PAIF) annual report for the financial period from 2nd of August 2006 to 31st October 2007.
In the “notes to financial statements” section, they listed out pretty much all of the companies that they are holding in their portfolio.
One company caught my attention. ABC Learning Centre, an Australian company.
According to ABC Learning Centre’s financials, I noticed that their total debt divided by market capitalisation is somewhat in the vicinity of more than 50%.
Filed under Unit Trusts (ASB, Public Mutual and others) | Comments (7)Updates on my Public Mutual Investment: 8th March 2008
This is a continuation of my previous post regarding my unit trust investment. Read it here.
Global market has taken a battering from what has happened in the US. Same thing goes to our very own Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (Bursa Saham Kuala Lumpur).
Do any of you invest in the stock market directly? Or perhaps through unit trust funds?
Today, we shall look at how my Public Mutual unit trust funds have fared since the day I bought into them a few months ago. I got belted, I tell you.
Filed under Unit Trusts (ASB, Public Mutual and others) | Comments (11)Types of Mutual Funds (Unit Trusts)
Today, we shall look into a number of types of mutual funds (unit trusts) available out there:
Income Funds
These funds are designed to concentrate on low-risk assets like cash and fixed interest instruments to focus more on income for their unitholders. Income funds can also be known as defensive funds.
Growth Funds
These funds are designed to concentrate on long-term capital growth (not so much on income) and usually invests in higher-risk assets like stocks and real estate.
Index Funds (Passive Fund)
These funds are designed to track/reflect the performance of a chosen index. They are known as passive funds because it is usually a no-brainer for the fund managers to make investment decisions. They don’t usually care about stock picking and market timing. Index funds usually hold all the securities in the index that they are tracking, or perhaps choosing certain number of securities in an index that represent the index as a whole. These funds are meant to achieve performance like the chosen index.
For example, there’s an index fund called Bobby Fund (BBF) that tracks S&P/ASX20 index. There are 20 stocks in that index. So, BBF buys all that 20 stocks (according to their proportion) to track the index’s performance.
Single Sector Funds
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Amanah Saham Malaysia : ASM
The other day my mom went through the drawers and cupboards and surprisingly, she came across two gold coloured account books. One is hers, and another one is mine. They were Amanah Saham Malaysia’s (ASM) account books. Have no idea how long they have been there, gathering dust.
What is Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) you ask? Well, ASM is another one of Permodalan Nasional Berhad’s (PNB) fixed price unit trust fund.
I read PNB’s latest prospectus recently and I have compiled a summary of what Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) is all about.
Here are some of the features of Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM):
Filed under Unit Trusts (ASB, Public Mutual and others) | Comments (2)Hukum Amanah Saham Bumiputera : Harus (LATEST)
Folks, I just received an e-mail about the Hukum for investments in Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) and Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN). I’d like to share with you of the news article. I’m not sure from where this article is from, so if anyone can confirm, do share in the comments section. The fatwa was released by the Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan and the hukum is HARUS.
Here you go:
Melabur dalam ASB, ASN harus: Fatwa
Oleh Suhana Roslan
KUALA TERENGGANU: Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan semalam memutuskan hukum melabur dalam Skim Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN) dan Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB), termasuk pembayaran dividen dan bonusnya, adalah harus.
Berikutan itu, umat Islam tidak perlu ragu-ragu mengenai status pelaburan kedua-dua skim berkenaan.
Pengerusi Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan, Prof Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin, berkata keputusan itu dibuat selepas pihaknya meneliti dan mempertimbangkan semua kesan daripada pelaburan berkenaan.
Filed under Unit Trusts (ASB, Public Mutual and others) | Comments (8)
Understanding Unit Trust
Today we will learn about what unit trust is all about. We will look at the structure, the advantages, the disadvantages, and what I think about unit trust.
In the most simplistic sense, unit trust is a medium where people (investors) pool their money to be invested in the financial markets.
Around the world, there are many other terms that are similar to unit trust. Some are called mutual funds, managed funds, and investment companies. The difference between them is just the legal structure whereby unit trusts are being run under the TRUST structure while others are run under the COMPANY structure.
STRUCTURE
Firstly, let’s talk about a structure that most of us are familiar with, which is the company structure. Assume there’s this company called Blogobob Sdn. Bhd. The company’s primary business is to sell Nasi Lemak. The company are run by the management team and being supervised by the board of directors. The company’s objective is to make money for its shareholders (obviously..). Have a look at the COMPANY structure below:
Now, let’s have a look at a fantasy Unit Trust fund named Blowspot Ittikal Fund. Its primary business is obviously to make investments. Have a look at the UNIT TRUST structure below:
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My Investments with Public Mutual
In a previous article on Public Mutual, I talked about my first unit trust investments.
Yesterday, I added some more to my investments. The usual routine took place whereby my unit trust consultant came to my house, we chatted a little, signed a few forms, and my consultant goes away with a smile on her face (because of the commissions of course). Hehe.
An interesting information to share, she told me that beginning from January 2008, the service charge for individual investors has been reduced to 5.5% and for EPF investors, around 3%. That’s good news for the investors (still a bit too high) but bad for the unit trust consultants because of reduced commissions ;)
I topped up my current holdings of Public Asia Ittikal Fund (PAIF) and Public Islamic Dividend Fund (PIDF).
I also invested in 5 new funds of various risk profiles and investment strategies. They are:
Filed under Unit Trusts (ASB, Public Mutual and others) | Comments (38)Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 : ASW 2020
Included in the long list of Permodalan Nasional Berhad’s (PNB) long list of unit trust products is the Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020, or simply ASW 2020.
Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020. I mean, how cool does that sound! Vision 2020 Unit Trust. Sounds so…. out of the ordinary huh?
What’s next? The Terminator 2050 Fund. Investment strategy, to invest in all companies related with uranium, especially in those specialising in nuclear warheads? Haha. That would be something huh?
Anyway, back to ASW 2020, this is another fund that offers the capital guarantee feature. Considering the low-risk nature, the returns from this fund is not so bad. However, I’m sure all of you would agree that if you’re a Bumiputera, ASB is at the top of your priority list.
Below are some of the features of ASW 2020:
Filed under Unit Trusts (ASB, Public Mutual and others) | Comments (19)
