ASX newbie

By Michael Yardney
There’s been lots of negative news in the financial press recently hasn’t there? Sometimes there seem to be more negatives than positives.
The latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of Australia (see the table below) show that our property markets have held up pretty well over the last year. Yet if you look [...]

Shares in building and engineering services provider Norfolk Group plunged 21% yesterday after the company joined the slowing gathering pack of groups downgrading their 2009 earnings.
The company told the ASX yesterday that it will not meet its earnings target this financial year as it continues to be affected by a weak construction and building [...]

By John Edwards

There’s been a lot of negative attention being given to the current state of the housing market with commentators suggesting property prices might fall to well below those reached before the ’boom’ began nationally. I suppose what you choose to believe depends on what branch of the tree you’re currently sitting on.
To me [...]

“What a time to be taking annual leave!” we wrote in an email to Dan Denning last Tuesday. The US market had just fallen by 7%.
“Have some cocktails and hit the beach” he replied. Not wanting to ignore sensible advice, we did. But we do confess to watching far too much of Sky Business Channel [...]

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By Bill Zheng
Let’s look at a story from Zen Buddhism: The wind was flapping a temple flag. Two monks were arguing about it. One said the flag was moving; the other said the wind was moving. Arguing back and forth they could come to no agreement.
Finally the Master said, “It is neither the wind nor [...]

By Michael Yardney
Residential property is going through a crisis of confidence. The market has finally been slowed down by the double whammy of 12 consecutive increases in interest rates and falling consumer confidence from negative messages in the media surrounding the global finance crunch.
There has been a sharp reduction in demand for mortgages, auction clearance [...]

The problems in the Australian housing market pale into insignificance beside the woes of credit markets in the wake of Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, but they do tell us something about the Australian economy.
Yes, housing, especially new homes, are depressed with a low level of starts, especially in NSW.
But unlike the US where new [...]

Shares in Surfers Paradise-based property developer Raptis Group Ltd have been suspended after one of the group’s financiers appointed a receiver to “entities associated” with one of its major developments on the Gold Coast, the $700 million Southport Central project.
It’s more evidence of the property crunch hurting parts of Queensland with City Pacific [...]

With a rapidly changing finance market, lenders are more cautious than ever. Even in the best of times lenders don’t really understand investors; so the way that they lend money doesn’t always help clients who have set their sights on using trusts to invest.
In a recent seminar I was asked by a couple how to [...]