Most Outstanding Islamic Fund Manager Award for 2nd consecutive year

Again, Public Mutual won the Most Outstanding Islamic Fund Manager award at the 5th KLIFF (Kuala Lumpur Islamic Finance Forum) Islamic Finance Awards 2008 ceremony. This is second consecutive year that they won this award.

The award was presented by Y.B Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Minister of Finance II to Public Mutual’s Chairman Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Teh Hong Piow during the award presentation ceremony which was held on 18 November 2008 at the Istana Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

The 5th KLIFF Islamic Finance Awards 2008 is organised by The Centre for Research and Training (CERT) together with the host, Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC), and in collaboration with Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes (DJIM), the International Institute of Islamic Finance (IIIF) and Messrs Hisham, Sobri & Kadir (HSK).

Tan Sri Teh expressed pride that once again Public Mutual is bestowed this prestigous award. “This award represents the 121st award won by Public Mutual since 1999. Winning this award not only reinforces our position in the Islamic unit trust industry but also affirms our commitment to excellence,” he added. Tan Sri Teh dedicated the award to Public Mutual’s board of directors, the management, staff, agency force and the investors for their unwavering support and trust over the years.

Public Mutual is a leading player in the private Islamic unit trust fund sector in Malaysia. As at end September 2008, it manages 24 Islamic funds with total Islamic assets under management of RM8.5 billion. This represents 50.7% market share of the private Islamic unit trust industry. The company is also the most awarded Islamic unit trust fund manager in Malaysia, winning a total of 32 Islamic Fund Awards. This includes the "Best Islamic Fund Manager in Asia 2006 & 2007" awarded by Failaka Advisors, Dubai, a recognised leader in the field of Islamic fund research.

Public Mutual is Malaysia’s largest private unit trust company with 67 funds under management. It has over 2,000,000 account holders serviced by over 40,000-strong unit trust consultants. As at end September 2008, the total net asset value of the funds managed by the company was RM24.1 billion.

Special Service Charge of 5% on All Equity Fund

Public Mutual is offering a Special Service Charge of 5% when you invest in their equity funds for a limited period. The offer period is from 3 November to 3 December, 2008.

As in my earlier post titled "Unit Trust is still the way to go", investing in unit trust is still the better choice despite the global financial crisis. In fact, this is best time to invest in unit trust. With this Special Service Charge offer, they will be bring in more funds to continue investing in value counter that had been battered down, counters that are still fundamentally strong and profitable. Investment at the current lower price will surely increase your potential earnings in the future.

Besides, this special service charge will be extended to all cash transactions (including standing instructions, Ringgit Cost Averaging instructions and switching of low-load units) into the equity funds during the said period.

This is indeed an opportune time for long term investors to take advantage of this attractive offer of lower service charge to increase their investment into the equity funds to meet their long term investment goals.

The world's most renowned investor Warren Buffett had in his recent article titled
'Buy American. I Am" published on 16 October 2008 in the New York Times, quoted the following in explaining why he began to invest heavily in stocks: -

“I can't predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven't the faintest idea as to whether stocks will be higher or lower in a month - or a year – from now. What is likely, however, is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over.”

Public Mutual: Distribution For the Financial Year ending 31 October 2008

For the financial year ending 31 October 2008, Public Mutual declared final distributions to two of their funds, namely Public Industry Fund (PIF), Public Islamic Bond Fund (PIBOND) and Public Equity Fund (PEF)

Unitholders of these 3 funds, who remain in the Register as at 31 October 2008 will be entitled to this distributions.

The rates of the distributions are as follow

Public Industry Fund (PIF)
7.50 sen per unit

Public Islamic Bond Fund (PIBOND)
4.00 sen per unit

Public Equity Fund (PEF)
5.00 sen per unit

Unit Trust is still the way to go!

At the current level of the KLCI, anyone who had bought unit trust in the past one year must have been feeling jittery right now. Generally, it has dropped off 20% of the value when they bought one year ago. So what now? Is it time to redeem for cash now?

Well, this question depends on the individual. If you need this money, of course you are forced to sell off your unit trust. Or maybe you have some investment ideas, or you foresee some great chances to increase your earning, by all means, sell off your units. Do not risk incurring opportunity cost.

But, if you sell off your unit trusts just to keep in the savings account, then the answer to the question above is a definite NO! The reasons are simple:

1) You suffer losses by selling off your unit trusts at current price.
2) You denied yourself a chance to recover back your losses.
3) Your money will lose out to the effect of inflation.

Investing in unit trust can be ANYTIME. Yes, even during the current financial crisis, as long as you are doing dollar cost average. Dollar cost averaging is a concept to minimize your risk, especially during the current crisis.

Of course it is possible that after you buy in, the price will continue to drop off. But with dollar cost average, you are picking up units at price lower than your 1st time to purchase, therefore covering your losses from your 1st investment.

Unless you are a stock market expert, normal people can never know exactly when the market will rebound, but we do know that historically, everything that fall down will climb back up again! So pick up the units gradually when the market is low (though no one knows whether this is the bottom or not).

For those who invested lump-sum and suffering paper loss now, if you don't need the money now, DON'T SELL. Unit trust has a better chance of recovering, with medium risk.

Consider this, even during this crisis, there are still investor buying into unit trust. These money enable the fund manager to do bottom-fishing, accumulate stocks at low price, and this will enable the funds to recover their price more swiftly when the market recover.

If you are buying into a blue chip stock, can you have this privileged? NO! Not at all, you can only hope it reached the price above your buying price, provided that the company's earnings and prospects remained positive. What if the counter you bought do another Transmile (a former blue chip counter who drop from RM13 to the current 55 sen at time of publishing)?

Therefore, unit trust remain the best bet for the general public to invest in, especially during the current crisis where we can get more units at less price.

What is your Risk Profile?

Answer each of the following 12 questions. Take as long as you like, there is no time limit. For the multiple choice questions, try and choose the answer that is closest to your circumstances.

1. When you hear unexpected adverse or bad financial news, you
A. never overreact
B. rarely overreact
C. always overreact


2. Between a new position offering greater job security with small pay rise, and another, with a high pay rise but less job security, which would you select?
A. Probably higher pay rise
B. Not sure
C. Probably greater job security


3. Would you borrow money or go on margin trading to make an investment that might double your money
A. Yes
B. Maybe
C. No


4. If you have invested in a stock that rose 30% within 6 months after you bought it, you would
A. do nothing or buy more shares
B. sell some shares
C. sell all your shares

5. Do you believe luck is important in making your investment decisions?
A. Yes
B. Sometimes
C. No

6. If you could increase your chances of improving your returns by taking more risk, you would be
A. willing to take a lot more risk with all your money
B. willing to take some risk with some of you money
C. unwilling to take much more risk

7. What percentage of your household income (after tax) is spent each month paying off credit card bills, car payments and either on rent or mortgage payments?
A. More than 50%
B. Between 25% and 50%
C. Less than 25%

8. In case of an emergency, you would have available savings to pay for
A. less than 3 months' living expenses
B. 3-12 months' living expenses
C. more than 12 months' living expenses

9. Would you invest in a stock based on a friend's tip?
A. Yes
B. Maybe
C. No

10. Which of the following statement best describes your feelings about investment risk?
A. I prefer to select an aggressive mix of investment - some that have a low degree of risk, but with emphasis on others that have a higher degree of risk that may yield greater returns
B. I prefer to select a balanced mix - some that have a low degree of risk, others that have a higher degree of risk that may yield greater returns
C. I prefer to select a mix of investment with emphasis on those with a low degree of risk and a small portion in others that have a higher degree of risk that may yield greater returns

11. Do you expect your future earnings over the next five years to:
A. increase
B. stay the same
C. decrease

12. Would you invest in individual stocks or equity (stock-based) unit trust?
A. Yes
B. Maybe
C. No


You are a Moderate Investor (20-30)

As a Moderate Investor, you are most comfortable with a combination of low and high-risk investments in your portfolio. Bear in mind that you will need to take some degree of risk to receive greater reward. You will require an investment strategy that will cope with the effects of inflation. Most of all, you will not worry excessively about your investments when the market drops because you know that the potential for long-term capital growth means riding out the dips. Your allocation of your assets should be equally distributed among equity, balanced, and bond funds.


You are an Aggressive Investor (31-36)

As an Aggressive Investor, you are very comfortable with high-risk investments in your portfolio. You have no qualms about taking risk and in fact, you seek the greatest reward for every ringgit invested. You know that there will be potential for gains but also know that there will be potential for loss as well. You will have no problems with investing a major portion of your assets in equity funds, and a minor portion of your assets in balanced and bond funds

You are a Conservative Investor (12-20)

As a Conservative Investor, you are most comfortable with low-risk investments in your portfolio. You will only take the risk if your principal amount of investment is protected and incur interest from there. But bear in mind that your investments may not outpace inflation as the returns are considerably lower. Your best bet would be investing a majority of your assets in bond funds, and consider allocating a small percentage to both balanced and equity funds.

For calculation,

3 points for every question that you answered A.

2 points for every question that you answered B.

1 point for every question that you answered C.

Credit Card: A necessity in today's world

In today's world of globalization and internet business, credit card has become a necessity to most people, for credit card bring about convenience to all of us! With only one card in hand, our purchasing need can be fulfilled all around the world!

But in recent time, credit card has been misused, thus creating negative implications to the users. Everyone, whether existing users or those planning to get one, must bear in mind that credit card is meant to bring you convenience, not excessive spending without limit. If everyone practiced responsible spending, credit card will be one of the best tools in this era.

There are many types of credit card offered by almost all the banks, some in collaboration with airline or hypermarket. So how do we determine which card to apply for? In this age of internet, besides obtaining more information from the “physical” bank itself, we can also obtain the latest and most attractive offers from online credit card search. We can even apply credit card online!

And if you are in the U.S, Yourcreditnetwork.com is one site you must refer to. It offer such comprehensive information on credit card, from Low Interest Credit Cards, Student Credit Cards to Bad Credit Cards. Yes, you did not get me wrong, this site even list out Credit Cards that are considered bad, and all the cards were given rating and review.

Besides, this site also specializes on informing consumers about credit card offers, how to use credit wisely, and occasionally posts humorous insights into the wacky world of credit. What’s world without a little bit of humor? So if you are looking for information on credit cards without the usual dullness, this site is especially for you!