New Fund: Public Singapore Equity Fund

Singapore is into a new era now after opening its door to casinos, which attracted massive foreign direct investments. The small little island poised to grow further boosted by various industry, not only gaming.

"The fund enables investors to participate in the growth prospects of Singapore's resilient economy and attractive valuations. Investors can ride on the potential upside of the Singapore dollar over time," said CEO Yeoh Kim Hong.

About the fund

The fund seeks to achieve capital growth over the medium-to-long term mainly by investing in Singapore stocks, though it may invest up to 30% of its NAV in global markets. As such, the fund will invest in a diversified portfolio of blue chips, index stocks and growth stocks.

"The fund would focus on sectors with resilient growth prospects such as banking and finance, properties and real estate investment trusts, consumer, offshore and marine engineering groups, services and commodity sectors," added the CEO.

Investments that may also included:

• Listed warrants and options to enhance its returns
• Unlisted equities with attractive potential returns, particularly in companies that are expected to seek listing on the Singapore, domestic and global markets within a time frame of two years
• Collective investment schemes with similar investment objectives in the Singapore, domestic and global markets
• Domestic and foreign fixed income securities such as sovereign bonds, corporate debt and money market instruments to help generate returns

Source: Public Mutual

Click here to download prospectus

Why Ringgit is so strong now?

Recently, many of my friends asking me why Ringgit suddenly is rising so fast in value?

Well, this is not a bad question though for Malaysians. In contrast, for those who working overseas, and converting to Ringgit regularly, would become poorer as a result. In fact, many Malaysians working in Singapore especially, might think that RM is generally weakening against SGD over the long-term. It's TRUE if you are saying since "Dot-Com" burst. 

Could this be a turning point now?

From the graph above, it shows clearly that the trend of decreasing value of SGD against RM. Reasons being that optimism of Malayisan economy is going to grow faster than many predicted. This has whetted foreign investors' appetite for local assets, including stocks and bonds.

World Bank recently raised its forecast for Malaysian economy to grow at a faster rate of 5.7% this year, compared with its earlier forecast of 4.1% made in November. As a result, local equity and bond markets are experiencing strong flowing-in of foreign money, spurred by strong growth prospects and favourable government policy moves. Malaysia goverment securities (MGS) is one of the ringgit-denominated asset which could give foreign funds liking to deposit, given its huge liquidity.

Anyway, the main reason behind the strengthening of Ringgit started when Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) raised overnight policy rate (OPR) from 2% to 2.25%. And, many analyst are expecting another hike on May 13 meeting. The recent rate increase and the prospects for further hikes are supportive of the ringgit's further rise.

In Asia Pacific region, Bank Negara was among the first central banks to raise key interest rates, after Vietnam and Australia, as policymakers expect economic growth to strengthen further, or to prevent another asset bubble from being inflated. Consequently, ringgit is one of the best performing currency year-to-date.

Hint: Ringgit will strengthen further against USD, and SGD somemore...