Suresh Rajan

ALMOST everywhere I go these days there are those who ask how they could get into the sharemarket and what they need to so do.

DURING the past week we have seen the key gauge of commodity prices, the CRB Futures Index, hit a 17-month low, housing starts fall 2.7 per cent to an 18-year low and tourist arrivals fall 7.7 per cent. What does all this mean for us in Australia?

JUST as investors started thinking Japan had turned the corner, the March quarter negative GDP growth came out and put paid to that thought.

WE have heard the Prime Minister and Treasurer crow about the fact that we appear to have turned the corner in Australia. But have we?

THE number of small businesses in WA has grown 9 per cent to 116,300 in the seven months from September to MayAccording to a Small Business Development Corporation

WITH globalisation and similar issues being paramount in the discussions of a number of people and groups, it is an opportune time to look at whether the choice of country in an investment decision is important.

THE Australian dollar was the strongest of the major global currencies during the month of April.

THE superannuation contributions made on behalf of a spouse has been described as one of the best tax concessions that has been granted in years.

DAVID Shirlaw heads the research and technical services team at Macquarie Funds Management. In that capacity he often creates tools for advisers to use in their business.

THERE was a time when the words “hedge fund” would cause a severe twitch and perhaps a raising of the eyebrows of most advisers, and certainly among clients.

LAST year was a huge one for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in Australia.

THERE are few clearer thinkers about the Perth property market and its associated risks, returns and nuances than Gavin Hegney of Hegney Property Valuations.

THE biggest surprise in the Budget document released by Treasurer Peter Costello was probably in the size of the surplus.

ASK anyone who was involved in the technology sector of the market back in April of 2000 and they usually develop a glazed look when discussing the “Tech Wreck”.

EVERY half year since June 1997, the Financial Planning Association (FPA) has commissioned Roy Morgan Research to monitor financial planning guidance.

IN March of this year, BT Lifetime Super-Employer plan achieved an important milestone – it reached the $1 billion in funds under administration. The fund had been relaunched in 1998.

HOW often have you heard investors and fund managers talking about hedging their currency exposure and wondered what in God’s name they were talking about?

A NUMBER of commentators have indicated their belief that the Australian economy will display a rapid improvement over the next few months.

THE biggest industry in this town at the moment seems to be built around bashing the Australian Taxation Office and their staff.

ALL we have heard in the last few weeks is the gnashing of teeth and general wailing as the little Aussie battler has plumbed new depths on each trading day.

THE cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia to the cash rate of 0.5 per cent has taken a few analysts by surprise.Some economists have suggested that the RBA has gone too far with the size of the cut.

RECENTLY, Business News personal finance writer Mark Beyer, wrote about the growth of ethical funds in Australia.

THERE seems to be a trend among chief economists to call the turning of the equities market. The latest to do this is David Hudson, of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.

SUCCESSFUL international trade requires strategy, RSM Bird Cameron’s international client services director, Neil Hough, has told a company export seminar.

WE often wonder whether the movements on Wall Street and the rest of the US econ-omy mean anything to us here in Australia?

I AM certainly not alone in being spellbound by the haste at which economists have had to change their forecasts of growth for the world.

WHEN you start an article as follows “If there is one thing the markets have taught us it is that investment fundamentals can’t always explain price movements” you know that you are going to get the attention of most analysts.

EDDIE McGuire asks this question often. I suspect the question is largely rhetorical because I can’t think of too many of us who would answer no!But it may surprise you to learn that most of us are millionaires.

WHEN the whole of the investment world starts to talk about the more daunting and likely prospect of a recession here in Australia, it causes everyone to acknowledge the possibility of that occurring. So in times of this uncertainty we turn to our est...

IF you get Centrelink payments, you may have received a questionnaire on trusts and private companies which must be answered by the end of April.

FOR those of you who felt that we had a rough year last year, your gut feelings have now been confirmed.Datastream has released the graph (right) which shows what a miserable year it was in just about every market around the world.

THE chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, David Knott, has just announced a major investigation into the financial status of Australia’s unlisted solicitors mortgage investment schemes.