stock exchange

Sweeping up after the 1929 Crash


Today, many investors might not immediately recognize the name of master investor John Templeton. In the final quarter of the last century, however, Templeton was as famous and highly regarded as Warren Buffett is today.

Templeton’s investing strategy focused on value, not negative predictions

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Cluff Gold plc, $1.15, symbol CFG on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 131.8 million; Market cap: $185.6 million; www.cluffgold.com), is a U.K.-based gold-mining company that operates in West Africa. Its shares are also listed on the London Stock Exchange. In Burkina Faso, Cluff operates the Kalsaka mine, which produces about 70,000 ounces of gold a year. The company is now focusing on increasing production at its wholly owned Baomahun project in Sierra Leone. This deposit could hold as much as three million ounces of gold....

First Capital Realty, $16.11, symbol FCR on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 188.6 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion; www.firstcapitalrealty.ca), owns, develops and operates shopping centres throughout Canada. The company focuses on big cities, including Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton and Quebec City. First Capital owns interests in 165 properties, including four under development. The company’s shopping centres are mostly anchored by supermarkets and drugstores. Its largest tenants include Sobeys, Loblaw, Metro Inc. and Shoppers Drug Mart....

An American Depositary Receipt, or ADR, is a certificate that represents a foreign stock that trades in the United States. Banks and brokerage firms in the U.S. issue or sponsor ADRs, and investors buy and sell them on U.S. stock markets, just like regular stocks. If you own an American Depositary Receipt, you have the right to obtain the foreign stock it represents. However, investors usually find it more convenient to continue holding ADRs as part of their strategy for portfolio diversification....

We place a lot of importance on investment quality. We assign one of our six TSINetwork Investment Quality Ratings to every stock we recommend. We base these six ratings on a total of nine key factors. Many of the factors are widely recognized as investments quality hallmarks, such as a long-term record of earnings and a long-term record of dividends. Others are less widely followed, such as a company’s ability to profit from secular trends. Secular trends go far beyond mere business cycles. They reflect ongoing changes in the world. One key secular trend today is the fact that vast numbers of workers in emerging markets are pole-vaulting into the middle class. This opens up great opportunities for many of our recommendations in the consumer area, such as Tupperware, Kraft and many others. These companies can take the products and procedures they developed and perfected in the west, and put them to work in China, India and other emerging markets, with little additional development cost. Fertilizer companies can also profit from this secular trend. When poor people begin making more money, one of the first things they do is improve their diet. They want more and better food, and more meat in particular. This pattern will fuel growth in the fertilizer business for years if not decades to come....

Aurora Oil & Gas, $2.98, symbol AEF on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 403.7 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; www.auroraoag.com.au), is an Australia-based company focused on the Eagle Ford shale gas area in southwestern Texas. The company is also listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Aurora holds 15,600 acres spread out over four areas: Sugarloaf, Longhorn, Ipanema and Excelsior. The company’s production is rising steadily, and its cash flow per share will likely be about $0.11 a share this year. That could double to $0.22 a share next year....

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer very low management fees. As well, the best ETFs offer well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks. But the quality of ETFs varies widely. All too many ETFs exist to tap into popular, but risky, themes and fads. So you need to be highly selective with your ETF holdings. Here are six foreign ETFs we like:...

We’ve long recommended that all Canadian investors own shares of two or more of the big-five Canadian banks. That’s mainly because of the banks’ importance to Canada’s economy. However, each of the big five banks have different objectives, so they’re not all suitable for every investor.

Dividend paying stocks: Scotia is Canada’s most international bank

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BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $58.14, Toronto symbol BNS, has joined a new consortium called Maple Group Acquisition Corp. Other members include CIBC, TD Bank, National Bank and five major pension funds. Maple wants to buy a controlling interest in TMX GROUP $45, Toronto symbol X, which operates the Toronto Stock Exchange. TMX has already accepted a takeover offer from the London Stock Exchange. (Note that Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal are advising on that potential merger. That’s why they are not part of Maple.)...

Three of Canada’s big-five banks, BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA, $58.49, Toronto symbol BNS, CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE, $84.40, Toronto symbol CM, and TORONTO-DOMINION BANK, $84.15, Toronto symbol TD, have joined a new consortium called Maple Group Acquisition Corp. Other members of this group include National Bank and five major pension funds. Maple wants to buy a controlling interest in TMX Group Inc. (Toronto symbol X), which operates the Toronto Stock Exchange, the TSX Venture Exchange and the Montreal Exchange. In February 2011, TMX accepted a takeover offer from the London Stock Exchange Group. Under the terms of that offer, TMX shareholders would own 45% of the combined company, which would be the world’s second-largest stock exchange by market cap....