Crescent Wealth’s Australian Islamic Equity Fund rated world’s best

Sydney, October 17 2013 – Islamic fund manager Crescent Wealth’s Crescent Australian Equity Fund has recorded returns more than double the Australian Stock Exchange’s ASX 300 benchmark in the September quarter, ranking it as the world’s best performing Islamic equities fund in the period, according to Bloomberg. The fund was also the best performing Australian equities fund for the September quarter as rated by Morningstar.

Crescent Australian Equity Fund (CAEF), returned 23.0% for the three months to September 30, significantly outperforming the 10.3% gain on the ASX 300 over the same period. Issam Eid, Crescent’s portfolio manager, said the fund’s exposure to small caps during the quarter and individual stock picking, particularly within the resources, energy and mining services sectors, were the largest contributors to the high return.

“We believed that the market was holding down the miners and that a number of stocks were significantly undervalued and we have seen something of a fight back over the past few months,” Mr Eid said.

“At the same time, we took the view that valuations of large caps and defensive stocks on the Australian exchange looked expensive and we positioned our portfolio accordingly. Our fund is also precluded from investing in banks which proved advantageous as those stocks came off somewhat during the period.”

In the mining, resources and energy sectors over the past six months, Crescent Wealth’s equities fund has invested in stocks in the gold, iron ore and mining services sectors (Independence Group NL, Oceana Gold Corp, Mount Gibson Iron Ltd, WDS Ltd and Titan Energy Services Ltd.) In the residential property and information technology sectors, the fund invested in companies including in GBST Holdings (GBT) and On the House (OTH).

“Looking forward over the next six to 12 months, we see continued upside to the CAEF portfolio and expect our holdings in natural resources and mining (BHP Billiton Ltd and Rio Tinto Ltd), IT (Runge Pincock Minarco Ltd and ASG Group Ltd), and consumer discretionaries (Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd, Vita Group Ltd and McPherson’s Ltd) to perform well,” Mr Eid said.

The Crescent Australian Equity Fund, launched in late 2011, is Australia’s first licensed Islamic managed fund. It is open to all investors, including private and institutional. Through its Board of Islamic scholars, Crescent Wealth applies a number of filters to ensure all investments held in the fund are in accordance with Islamic principles. Industries that are prohibited include alcohol, tobacco, weapons, pork, conventional financial services, gaming and media.

Crescent Wealth’s Diversified Property Fund also performed strongly over the last two quarters returning 3.38% over the past quarter, outperforming the Morningstar benchmark by 2.0%. Portfolio Manager for the Crescent Diversified Property Fund, Andrew Smith, said there have been a number of standout performers for the fund over the last quarter, including Stockland and Charter Hall.

Crescent Wealth’s Managing Director, Talal Yassine, said he was pleased about recent performance as it would highlight the potential for Islamic compliant financial products in the Australian market.

“There is enormous potential for Islamic funds in Australia mirroring the significant expansion we have seen in similar funds overseas. Crescent Wealth is proud to be the leading Australian pioneer in Islamic investing and will continue to work hard to deliver innovative products for investors,” Mr Yassine said.

To find out more about Crescent Wealth, please visit their website www.crescentwealth.com.au or call 1300 926 626 (within Australia)

+612 9696 9800 (Outside Australia).

source  >>

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Western Mentality & approach towards retirement:

CNN FINANCE : Even though you can't do much to control inflation, there are ways you can prevent your retirement savings from suffering.

Where Is Google Parking Its $40 billion Cash?

Published on Aug 7, 2012 by WSJDigitalNetwork : Tech giant Google has found a new place to park some of its $40 billion cash hoard: bonds backed by car loans. Katy Burne reports.

         

Morgan Stanley Was 'Driver' on Facebook's Wild IPO Ride

The highly-anticipated Facebook IPO was plagued with problems, potentially costing thousands of dollars to many small investors and further damaging Wall Street's reputation on Main Street. A Wall Street Journal report.

In snaring the most coveted investment-banking assignment of the year, Morgan Stanley's MS +2.66% Michael Grimes insisted to a senior Facebook Inc.FB +6.09% executive that he be the "single driver" of the company's initial public offering, adding that if the deal soured, it would be his "throat to choke."

Mr. Grimes's audacious, successful pitch to minimize input from other underwriters put Morgan Stanley in a position to exert unusual control over the IPO and to scoop up a bigger share of its fees. But it also turned the veteran Silicon Valley investment banker and his firm into targets for criticism when Facebook's IPO swiftly turned bad for many investors.

In the wake of the botched offering—Facebook has shed $22 billion in market value since the May 18 deal—much of the focus has been on the chaotic first day of trading, which was marred by technical problems on the Nasdaq Stock Market. But interviews with Wall Street bankers, brokers, investors and Silicon Valley executives reveal that Mr. Grimes, his firm and Facebook made several decisions in the weeks leading up to the offering that contributed to the rocky ride.

Full report : WSJ

HANG SENG OFFERS FIRST YUAN ETF TRACKING GOLD.

Uploaded by cctvnewschannel on 31 Jan 2012 - Hang Seng Bank announced that it's going to launch the world's first yuan-denominated Exchange Traded Fund, or ETF, that will track the international gold price.

The new ETF represents another step in the offshore development of yuan-denominated gold, after the Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange launched physical transactions in October.

The fund tracks the London gold fixing price in US dollars, and will hedge against foreign exchange rate movements between the yuan and the greenback. One board lot of 100 units of the ETF is priced at 3,500 yuan, excluding fees.

On the Money: Taking Stock (Russia)

Uploaded by RussiaToday on 28 Jan 2012 - How fast will Russia's equity markets get back to normal life after the fall in December? What can pump them back up? What about investment risk during Russia's presidential campaign? And which sectors could improve the health of the Russian economy? OtM is joined by Ben Aris, Simon Fentham-Fletcher, Artem Arkhipov and David Cranield.

FITCH DOWNGRADES 5 EUROZONE COUNTRIES.

Uploaded by cctvnewschannel on 27 Jan 2012 - U.S ratings agency Fitch has cut the credit ratings of Italy, Spain and three other euro zone nations as the region's debt crisis deepened. Fitch cut Italy by two notches to A- from A+, while Spain was lowered to A from AA-. Belgium, Slovenia and Cyprus were also downgraded.

Meanwhile, Fitch put all five nations' credit outlooks as "negative". However, investors were still optimistic over the Greek debt swap deal with its private creditors and the Euro rose against the US dollar for a fifth straight day.

Part 4: Irresponsible packaging & selling of Investments.

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Part 3: Irresponsible packaging & selling of Investments.

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Part 2: Irresponsible packaging & selling of Investments

A history of the Meltdown - The Secret History of the Global Financial Collapse 2010: The Men Who Crashed The World : 29 Dec 2010

Part 1: Irresponsible packaging & selling of Investments.

A history of the Meltdown - The Secret History of the Global Financial Collapse 2010:
The Men Who Crashed The World : 28 Dec 2010

Global Financial Crisis Explained

Uploaded by worldinformant on 23 Aug 2010 - The Short and Simple Story of the Credit Crisis.By Jonathan Jarvis | Crisisofcredit.com 

 The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. This project was completed as part of my thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

Cruel paradox for struggling homeowners.

Published on 29 Sep 2011 by CBS - Struggling homeowners who could benefit the most from the all-time low interest rates often don't have the equity in their homes to qualify. Cynthia Bowers reports on the cruel paradox.