canadian

Understand that no investment is “safe,” but the safest blue chip stocks have a history of success and years of dividend payments

ENBRIDGE INC. $38.63, is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $78.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 8.4%; www.enbridge.com) operates pipelines that pump oil and natural gas from Western Canada to eastern Canada and the U.S....

BCE INC. $55.33, is a buy. The telecom (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares o/s: 904.3 million; Market cap: $50.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Divd. yield: 6.0%; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest traditional telephone service provider: it has 2.7 million residential customers in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces....

Our two top Canadian insurance recommendations will be slowed by the COVID-19 outbreak, particularly their Asian operations. Much of that drop stems from the global stock market downturn; it hurts their wealth management fees as their clients’ stock portfolios drop in value....

VANECK VECTORS VIETNAM ETF, $10.33, is a buy for aggressive investors. The emerging market ETF (New York symbol VNM) lets you tap Vietnamese companies and foreign firms that get a significant share of their revenue from the Southeast Asian nation.


Your top holdings through the ETF are Vingroup (conglomerate), 8.4%; Vietnam Dairy, 7.6%; Vinhomes (real estate), 7.3%; No Va Land Investment, 6.9%; Mani (Japanese medical instrument maker with a Vietnam factory), 6.8%; and the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, 6.3%....

TC ENERGY INC., $57.86, is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares o/s: 939.8 million; Market cap: $54.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.6%; www.transcanada.com) generates steady cash flow for investors mainly through its 92,600-kilometre pipeline network; it pumps natural gas from Alberta to eastern Canada and the U.S....

All of the major Canadian and U.S. stock markets are down in the wake of the spread of the COVID-19 virus. But we think the worst is over for many stocks, and one way to profit, while at the same time cutting risk, is to invest in ETFs.


The best of these offer a diversified group of stocks while charging you low management fees....

ISHARES S&P/TSX REIT INDEX ETF, $13.33, is a hold. The ETF (Toronto symbol XRE; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) lets you tap all 19 Canadian real estate investment trusts in the S&P/TSX REIT Index.


Investors pay a reasonable MER of 0.61%, and the REIT fund gives you a high 7.1% yield.
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The market plunge in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis has lowered prices of most stocks and REITs. But with REITs, you also face the coronavirus’s very real impact on the ability of tenants to pay rent. Still, government transfers to individuals and businesses should help offset that....

Spurred by the dramatic impact of COVID-19 on the economy, the Bank of Canada has now cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.25% from 1.25%. Whether it continues to hold that rate steady, or cut it further, depends on the country’s economic growth and unemployment levels.


Meanwhile, even for our conservative investors, we caution against investing in bonds....