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ISHARES MSCI CHILE INVESTABLE MARKET INDEX FUND $65.88 (New York Exchange symbol ECH; buy or sell through brokers) is an ETF that aims to track the MSCI Chile Investable Market Index, which consists of stocks that are mainly traded on the Santiago Stock Exchange.

The fund’s top holdings are Empresas Copec SA (conglomerate), 8.0%; LATAM Airlines SA, 7.2%; Cencosud SA (retailer), 6.4%; Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (electricity), 6.2%; S.A.C.I. Falabella (retail), 5.7%; Quimica y Minera de Chile (mining), 5.4%; Banco Santander Chile (banking), 5.4%; Enersis AS (electricity), 4.8%; and Empresas CMPC (pulp and paper), 4.5%.

The fund’s industry breakdown is: Utilities, 21.6%; Financials, 17.7%; Materials, 13.7%; Consumer Staples, 12.4%; Industrials, 10.7%; Energy, 8.0%; Consumer Discretionary, 7.2%; Telecommunications, 3.1%; and Information Technology, 2.0%.

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ISHARES MSCI GERMANY FUND $24.74 (New York Exchange symbol EWG; buy or sell through brokers) tracks the stocks in the MSCI Germany Index.

This index aims to replicate 85% of the total market capitalization of the German stock market. The remaining 15% is unavailable for investment, partly due to limitations on foreign ownership.

The ETF’s top holdings are BASF (chemicals), 9.2%; Siemens (engineering conglomerate), 8.8%; Bayer (diversified chemicals), 8.2%; SAP (software), 7.5%; Allianz (insurance), 6.5%; Daimler (autos), 5.5%; Deutsche Bank, 4.5%; Linde AG (industrial gases), 3.4%; and Volkswagen AG (autos), 3.2%.

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ISHARES MSCI SOUTH KOREA INDEX FUND $62.18 (New York Exchange symbol EWY; buy or sell through brokers) is an exchange traded fund that aims to track the MSCI Korea Index.

The ETF’s top holdings are Samsung Electronics, 21.9%; Hyundai Motor Co., 5.3%; Posco (steel), 3.8%; Hyundai Mobis (auto parts), 3.4%; SK Hynix Semiconductor, 2.7%; Shinhan Financial, 2.5%; Kia Motors, 2.4%; KB Financial, 2.3%; LG Chemical, 2.2%; and NHN (Internet content), 1.8%.

The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Information Technology, 32.1%; Consumer Discretionary, 17.4%; Financials, 13.6%; Industrials, 13.2%; Materials, 10.5%; Consumer Staples, 5.6%; Energy, 3.2%; Utilities, 1.6%; Telecommunication Services, 1.2%; and Health Care, 0.9%.

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ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS INDEX FUND $43.41 (New York symbol EEM; buy or sell through brokers) is an exchange traded fund that aims to track the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Its geographic breakdown includes China, 17.6%; South Korea, 15.1%; Brazil, 12.6%; Taiwan, 10.7%; South Africa, 7.3%; India, 6.7%; Russia, 6.1%; Mexico, 5.2%; Malaysia, 3.4%; and Indonesia, 2.9%.

The fund’s top holdings are Samsung Electronics (South Korea), 4.1%; Taiwan Semiconductor (computer chips), 2.3%; China Mobile, 1.8%; China Construction Bank, 1.5%; Gazprom (Russia: gas utility), 1.2%; Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, 1.2%; America Movil (Brazil: wireless), 1.1%; and Itau Unibanco (Brazil: banking), 1.1%.

The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Financials, 26.9%; Information Technology, 14.0%; Energy, 12.1%; Materials, 11.2%; Consumer Staples, 9.0%; Consumer Discretionary, 8.0%; Telecommunication Services, 7.4%; and Industrials, 6.5%.

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ISHARES MSCI JAPAN INDEX FUND $10.17 (New York Exchange symbol EWJ; buy or sell through brokers; us.ishares.com) is an exchange traded fund that tries to match the return of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Japan index.

The ETF’s top holdings include Toyota, 6.1%; Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, 3.1%; Honda Motor, 2.7%; Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, 2.4%; Mizuho Financial Group, 2.2%; Canon, 1.8%; Takeda Pharmaceutical, 1.8%; Softbank Corp., 1.5%; Fanuc Corp., 1.3%; and Japan Tobacco Inc., 1.2%.

The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Consumer Discretionary, 20.7%; Financials, 20.1%; Industrials, 20.0%; Information Technology, 10.8%; Health Care, 6.9%; Materials, 6.6%; Consumer Staples, 6.3%; Telecommunication Services, 4.4%; Utilities, 2.6%; and Energy, 1.6%.

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TRANSCANADA CORP. $47.90 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 705.1 million; Market cap: $33.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.8%; www.transcanada.com) reports that its earnings fell 14.7% in 2012, to $1.3 billion, or $1.89 a share, from $1.6 billion, or $2.22 a share, in 2011.

Earnings benefited from the start-up of sections of the Keystone pipeline and contributions from new power projects. However, the company experienced unplanned outages at other power plants, and pumped less gas through its Canadian Mainline pipeline. Revenue rose 2.1%, to $8.0 billion from $7.8 billion.

The company also raised its dividend for the 13th consecutive year. The new annual rate of $1.84 a share, up 4.5% from $1.76, yields 3.8%. TransCanada is a buy.

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BROOKFIELD RENEWABLE ENERGY PARTNERS L.P. $30.60 (Toronto symbol BEP.UN; Units outstanding: 262.5 million; Market cap: $8.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.7%; www.brpfund.com) owns over 183 hydroelectric generating stations, seven wind farms and two natural-gas-fired plants. In all, it has 5,300 megawatts of generating capacity.

Roughly 33% of Brookfield Renewable’s generating capacity is in Canada, with another 45% in the U.S. and 22% in Brazil.

In the three months ended December 31, 2012, Brookfield’s revenue rose 7.5%, to $317 million from $295 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit jumped 40%, to $0.28 from $0.20, although both quarters were well under long-term averages. That’s because below-average rainfall amounts and lighterthan- usual winds held back electricity production.

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BELL ALIANT INC. $26.63 (Toronto symbol BA; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $6.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 7.1%; www.aliant.ca) sells phone and Internet services to 2.5 million customers in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec. It also sells wireless services through an alliance with BCE, which owns 45% of Bell Aliant.

The company continues to replace copper wires with fibre optic cable. That’s attracting more highspeed Internet and digital TV customers. Strong demand for these services is also helping offset lower revenue from traditional phone services.

Bell Aliant’s high-speed fibre optic systems now reach 650,000 homes. The company plans to increase that to 800,000 by the end of 2012.

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GREAT-WEST LIFECO $27.18 (Toronto symbol GWO; Shares outstanding: 950.6 million; Market cap: $25.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.5%) has agreed to buy Irish Life Group Ltd., Ireland’s largest pension manager and life insurance provider.

Irish Life has over one million clients and $50 billion of assets under management.

The government of Ireland nationalized Irish Life in June 2012, after its former parent company, Irish Life & Permanent, ran into financial difficulty.
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BCE INC. $46.26 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 775.4 million; Market cap: $35.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.0%; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest provider of telephone, Internet and wireless services. It also sells satellite and Internet TV services across the country.

In the three months ended December 31, 2012, BCE’s earnings per share rose 4.8%, to $0.65 from $0.62 a year earlier. Revenue was unchanged at $5.2 billion. Revenue at the traditional telephone business, which supplies 51% of BCE’s overall revenue, fell 3.7%, partly due to strong competition from cable companies.

However, many of BCE’s land-line clients are switching to mobile phones, which are more profitable for the company. That helped fuel a 6.8% revenue increase at the wireless division (28% of total revenue). Revenue at BCE’s media division (11%) rose 2.2%.
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SYMANTEC CORP. (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; www.symantec.com) sells computer security technology, including anti-virus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. It also offers data-archiving software....

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific investing advice on the widest possible variety of topics. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice....

THE BOEING CO. (New York symbol BA; www.boeing.com grounded all of its new 787 Dreamliner passenger planes in January 2013 after a battery problem forced one to make an emergency landing in Japan....

THOMSON REUTERS CORP. $31 (www.thomsonreuters.com) has increased its quarterly dividend by 1.6%, to $0.325 U.S. a share from $0.32 U.S. The new annual rate of $1.30 U.S. yields 4.3%. Buy.

CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE $83 (www.cibc.com) earned $2.15 a share in the three months ended January 31, 2013. That’s up 9.1% from $1.97 a share a year earlier. The bank continues to expand its retail banking and wealth management operations....

MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES INC. $33 (www. mtsallstream.com) reported that its revenue fell 3.5% in 2012, to $1.7 billion from $1.8 billion in 2011. That’s because revenue declined 8.3% at its Allstream division, which provides telecommunication services to businesses....

CANADIAN TIRE CORP. $70 (Toronto symbol CTC.A; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 81.1 million; Market cap: $5.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) operates 490 Canadian Tire stores, which specialize in automotive, household and sporting goods. The company owns these stores, but franchisees operate most of them. Canadian Tire also operates 299 gas stations and 87 Part Source auto parts stores.

In the past few years, the company has diversified its product lines by purchasing retailers with specialized products. These include Mark’s, which sells casual clothing though 386 stores, and Forzani Group, which sells sporting goods through 495 outlets, mainly under the Sport Chek banner. As well, Canadian Tire will soon complete its $85- million purchase of Pro Hockey Life, which sells hockey equipment through 23 stores.



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ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $63 (Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap: $94.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.rbc.com) earned $2.1 billion, or $1.36 a share, in the three months ended January 31, 2013. That’s up 11.6% from $1.9 billion, or $1.22 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 4.4%, to $7.9 billion from $7.6 billion. Royal set aside $349 million to cover potential loan defaults, up 30.7% from $267 million. That’s mainly due to extra provisions on specific loans at its securities-trading division.

Low interest rates continue to spur loan demand at Royal’s retail banking operations in Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean. Strong results from the bank’s trading and wealth management divisions also contributed to the higher results.

Royal also raised its quarterly dividend by 5.0%, to $0.63 a share from $0.60. The new annual rate of $2.52 yields 4.0%.
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POTASH CORP. OF SASKATCHEWAN $41 (Toronto symbol POT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 864.9 million; Market cap: $35.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.3; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.potashcorp.com) aims to raise its stake in Israel Chemicals Inc. from 13.9% to at least 51%.

Israel Chemicals produces potash from minerals it extracts from the Dead Sea. Based on Israel Chemicals’ current stock price, this purchase would cost Potash Corp. around $6 billion U.S.

The Israeli government considers this a strategic resource, so Potash Corp. needs permission to buy more shares. Still, this investment would give it a greater stake in a high-quality potash deposit.
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BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A $4.06 and BBD.B $4.06; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $6.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bombardier.com) has received a firm order for 32 of its new CSeries passenger jets from Russian aircraft leasing firm Ilyushin Finance Co.

If Ilyushin exercises its option to buy an additional 10 planes, the entire order would be worth $3.4 billion U.S. That’s equal to 20% of Bombardier’s 2012 revenue of $16.8 billion U.S. The company did not say when it would begin deliveries, as it is still developing the CSeries plane. It plans to begin test flights in June 2013.

The subordinate-voting class B shares are the better choice because of their slightly better liquidity and higher dividend yield.
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ANDREW PELLER LTD. $11 (Toronto symbol ADW.A; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 14.3 million; Market cap: $157.3 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.andrewpeller.com) reported that its sales rose 4.2% in the three months ended December 31, 2012, to $79.8 million from $76.6 million a year earlier. Peller has launched a number of new products, including its low-calorie skinnygrape wine.

Peller earned $6.6 million, up 5.1% from $6.3 million. Earnings per share rose 2.2%, to $0.47 from $0.46, on more shares outstanding. The company benefited from hedging contracts that it uses to lock in foreign exchange rates; that was the main reason for the higher earnings. Without these hedges, Peller’s earnings would have risen 0.5%.

Andrew Peller is a buy....

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $43 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth Portfolio; Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $36.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) has completed its purchase of 50% of Celtic Exploration Ltd. from its parent company, ExxonMobil Corp. (New York symbol XOM).

Celtic owns large undeveloped shale gas deposits along the B.C.-Alberta border. These fields hold a total of 128 million barrels of oil equivalent. At the end of 2012, Imperial’s proved reserves totalled 3.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

The company paid $1.55 billion for its half of Celtic. That’s equal to 42% of the $3.7 billion, or $4.42 a share, that it earned in 2012.
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PENGROWTH ENERGY CORP. $4.90 (Toronto symbol PGF; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 511.8 million; Market cap: $2.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; Dividend yield: 9.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.pengrowth.com) produced 85,748 barrels of oil equivalent a day (60% natural gas and 40% oil) in 2012. That’s up 15.9% from 73,973 barrels in 2011. However, depressed gas prices pushed down its cash flow by 13.1%, to $538.8 million from $620.0 million. Cash flow per share declined 35.8%, to $1.20 from $1.87, on more shares outstanding.

The stock is down 50% in the past year. That’s because investors are concerned that low gas prices and Pengrowth’s high debt ($1.8 billion, or 75% of its market cap) will force it to cut its $0.04-a-share monthly dividend, for a 9.8% annualized yield.

However, Pengrowth’s rising oil production will cut its risk. It recently began work on its Lindbergh oil sands project, which will produce 12,500 barrels a day by early 2015. That will rise to 50,000 barrels a day by 2018. Moreover, Pengrowth has $4.5 billion in tax pools that it can use to cut its tax bill until 2017.
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PRECISION DRILLING CORP. $8.40 (Toronto symbol PD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 276.3 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.precisiondrilling.com) sells contract drilling services to oil and gas producers, mainly in North America. It ended 2012 with 321 active rigs.

The company is slowly expanding its international operations: it now has a total of eight rigs in Mexico and the Persian Gulf region.

In 2012, Precision’s earnings fell 72.9%, to $52.4 million, or $0.18 a share. It earned $193.5 million, or $0.67 a share, in 2011. If you exclude writedowns of older rigs, earnings per share would have declined by 12.9%, to $0.81 from $0.93.
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RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $27 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 300.1 million; Market cap: $8.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.8; Dividend yield: 5.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) is Canada largest real estate investment trust (REIT), with 294 retail properties, including 11 under development. It also owns 52 malls in the U.S.

RioCan continues to expand beyond suburban big-box-style malls. It recently formed a joint venture with Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (Toronto symbol AP.UN) to redevelop certain properties in Toronto as mixed-use office, retail and residential complexes.

The REIT has also agreed to pay $362 million for an enclosed shopping centre and 50% of another mall, both in southern Ontario. Enclosed malls now supply 16.1% of its Canadian rental revenue.
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