investment

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Declining commodity prices and international sanctions have hurt the Russian economy....

Bell Aliant was a key acquisition for BCE in 2014, with the company agreeing to pay $3.95 billion in cash and stock for a 56% stake.

The shares of Canada’s big five banks have moved down recently, mainly due to fears that a slowing economy and rising interest rates will cut demand for new loans. However, each of the five continue to lower their costs and expand outside of Canada. That should spur their future earnings and dividends.


TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $68 (Toronto symbol TD; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $122.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.4; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.td.com) gets 56% of its earnings from its Canadian retail business....

Many investors think of our “stocks of the year” as sure-fire picks that are bound to be among the year’s biggest winners. Some of our past selections have lived up to that billing, but that’s not what I expect of them. Instead, I look for the best current example of my favourite type of investment, which I call a “heads-you-win-tails-you-break-even” situation.


No investment comes with a true guarantee....

Infrastructure assets such as toll roads, airports or port facilities have long been available only to large institutional investors or private equity funds. However, with a global focus on the development of infrastructure and a shortage of government funding, more of these unique investments have become available in the form of publicly listed stocks....

With broad-based losses across all of the major investment classes, the year 2018 will not be fondly remembered by many investors. However, some ETFs defied the odds and generated spectacular returns.


Here are three of the highest-returning ETFs of 2018.


DIREXION NATURAL GAS BEAR 3X ETF $33.17 (New York symbol GASX) invests in futures and options that in combination provide three times the opposite return of the ISE Natural Gas Index....

Russia has a huge economy, considerable natural resources, especially oil and gas, and a large labour force. Its emergence from communist rule in 1990 and the large-scale privatization of government-owned entities raised hopes that it would become one of the top-performing emerging economies.


Despite the strong performance of Russian between 1996 and 2008, it has faltered over the past decade....

Declining commodity prices and international sanctions have hurt the Russian economy. But despite that, the country has proved surprisingly resilient. The economy is on a modest growth path, government finances are in reasonable shape, inflation is under control and the currency has stabilized.


Here is one ETF that provides exposure to the top Russian public companies.


VANECK VECTORS RUSSIA ETF $20.08 (New York symbol RSX; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $1.5 billion) tracks the MVIS Russia Index, which includes publicly traded companies that are incorporated in Russia or that are incorporated outside of Russia but have at least 50% of their revenues/related assets in Russia.


Energy firms account for 41% of its assets, with commodities at 23%; Financial Services, 12%; Consumer Defensive, 8%; and Technology, 7.0%.


The ETF holds a portfolio of 27 stocks; the top 10 holdings make up a high 56% of its assets....

ETFs have two major advantages over traditional mutual funds.


First, they are easy to trade on stock exchanges, which gives them better liquidity.


Second, and perhaps more important, ETFs provide a low-cost investment option. In many cases, they also have superior performance results compared to mutual funds, even before fees have been taken into account.


Compare the following: Various ETFs track the Canadian equity market....

The payout history of Canadian dividend growth stocks is a major consideration when considering which stocks to invest in