We had 15 members attend our Monday 7th April meeting. The topic we discussed around the room was what will happen with the Trump Tariffs to our shares and superannuation balances. The Australian shares fell 4% Friday and are in a hold pattern today however, tomorrow anything can happen. The XAO (All Ordinaries Index) is down 7% for the March period, and 10% since early February.

The main handout was on gold miners in Australia (330 listed companies on the ASX ) with some small miners with incredible share price rises of​ 400%; while gold bullion rose some 30% over the last six months. There were 14 small gold miners on the handout page 6, all worth watching today and over the next 4 months. All 14 have gained 23% to 150% in the January- February period.

Thanks to Les for his resume of Opthea (OPT) research into retinal diseases and trials that showed early improvement, but under phase 3 trials were disappointing and the company value has now fallen and are in a trading halt.

Wende your “Silver” choice in the Monthly sheet performed very well. Winner for the month! Gold did ok for Neville.

On the monthly selection sheet nine members have chosen a new stock for April—May period. Sue on the Real time trading you lead with MPL (Medibank Private) which held up very well Friday when I did sheets; - but today it fell 6.7% to $4.32. Four members have traded on the Real Time Trading sheet with the three banks (ANZ, WBC & NAB) yet to announce their dividend that will be known by our next May meeting.

It’s worth noting Woolworths WOW and Challenger CGF both rose Friday and today are still in positive territory.

Our next meeting will be Monday 5 May at 2pm.
​
 
Malcolm Sanders
Convenor Australian Shares and Stock Market

​On Monday 3 March, guest speaker Declan Cassidy from Fixed Income Solutions BGC presented for 45 minutes, explaining bonds. Typically, bonds are bought at $100 with a fixed interest rate, and the principal is returned at maturity. Interest is paid semi-annually.

Bond types include:

1. Fixed-rate bonds (semi-annual coupon payments)
2. Floating-rate notes (quarterly coupon payments)
3. Inflation-linked bonds (capital indexed and annuity bonds)

Issuers: State/Federal Governments, Banks, ASX 200 companies, international corporates, supranationals (e.g., World Bank), PPPs, and smaller institutions.

Investors: Sovereign funds, industry super funds, family offices, councils, credit unions, NFPs, aged care providers, and individuals (SMSFs).

Corporate Bonds/Hybrids: Companies like Woolworths, Coles, Ampol, and Ausnet offer corporate bonds. These provide higher yields (5.0–7.5%) than major bank Tier 2 bonds but are less liquid.

Declan was thanked and presented with a U3A pen. A video of the session was recorded by Rene Martens for review and is currently available on YouTube at:

We welcomed Jeanette for her first meeting and thank all our members who phoned in their selections before the meeting. We now have 20 members of our group for 2025.

We began with excerpts from a Commsec video on the outlook for 2025 that gave a mildly positive out look that would not see any huge variations. That said AI could still create some surprises along with Donald Trump executive orders that no one can foresee what  MAGA (Make America Great Again) will cause to global economies and markets.

We had a quick review of a Watchlist of 2024 noting stocks such as EVN, GNG, QAN, RRL and SIG (Sigma) all had capital gains of more than 50% with Sigma gaining 160%. I will start a new listing for 2025 from member selections handed out and returned on our meeting day. A  listing awaits members who were absent at our first meeting to complete a selection of 2 stocks so we have a full coverage across the 11 sectors of the ASX.
​
Don’t forget we will have a guest speaker - Declan Cassidy from BGC - Fixed Income Solutions for our 3rd March meeting to present information on all types of “Bonds” as a form of invest and retirement income. The presentation will include handouts and on-screen information and time for questions starting at 2pm. This will likely run for 60 minutes. After 3pm we will review our selections on the Long Term, Monthly and Real Time Trading lists
 
Malcolm Sanders
Convenor Australian Shares and Stock Market

Following enrolment day on 15th January 2025 we have 17 members currently listed for our first meeting on Monday 3rd February at Room 1 at 2pm. Welcome to the three new members and also to our other members from 2024.

At our first meeting you will need to nominate three selections for the spreadsheets. We can view  any of the 2000 plus listed stocks on the ASX before you chose your selection.

I will email out a reminder note on 30th January with a listing of the top 200 stocks to help you select your stock you may wish to follow. The full listing of the 2000+ stocks document is too large for easy viewing.

With Donald Trump now President in the US the Australian stock market rose 100pts soon after opening on Tuesday 21 January but finished the day only 53 pts ahead. The Australian exchange rate against the US dollar rose 1cent to 62.4 cents. 

I look forward to another interesting year for the share market in 2025.
 
Malcolm Sanders
Convenor Australian Shares and Stock Market

​Our meeting on Monday, 2nd December 2024, was attended by 19 members. We began by thanking Bev Lee for her work behind the scenes, which helped me run the program and keep our website updated with meeting notes and the newsletter. She was presented with a jar of jam. A group photo taken by Bev last month, inscribed with the words “U3A Australian Shares 2024,” was distributed to all members.

We discussed scams and fraud, which are particularly concerning over the Christmas period. It is essential to be extremely careful and avoid clicking on links such as “Enter here” or similar wording. The MyGov website is being upgraded, and you should not access it through any links in emails. Instead, go to your stored login page and enter the site in the usual way. Email notifications from MyGov may be scams. Scammers can also raid letterboxes, obtaining full names from correspondence with companies like Link Marketing or Computer Share, and use your Holder Identification Number (HIN) to open bank accounts elsewhere. Most HIN numbers now display only the last four digits as a precaution. To protect against this, ensure you clear your mailbox daily after each postal delivery.

We reviewed the Bendigo Watch List, which I created based on your selections in February across 11 sectors. The list showed a 2% increase in total holding value. Handouts were provided with values as of last Friday. I returned original selection sheets to about six members where names were included. Some selections were unnamed, so those sheets could not be returned.

Margaret J was the winner for “Long Term” selections, with PME showing a $13,162 increase. She received a jar of jam. Les received the wooden spoon for his AGE selection. For the “Real Time Trading” sheet, Les was the winner with a final holding of $14,819 for PME and was also awarded a jar of jam. Peter M will receive his wooden spoon in due course.

​During the mid-afternoon break, we enjoyed shop-bought fruit cake. Although it tasted good and was moist, it fell apart easily.

Graeme had the best performance on the “Short Term Monthly” sheet, finishing with $21,386 for SLC, earning him a jar of jam. Margaret W’s selection of DRO performed poorly over the last four months, earning her the wooden spoon.

Thanks to Wende for taking photos of the awards throughout the meeting.

Registration for 2025 courses will begin at 9:30 am on Wednesday, 15th January 2025.

Our first meeting of the year will be at 2:00 pm on Monday, 3rd February 2025. Please prepare three selections for review so I can update the spreadsheets. A reminder email will be sent out the Thursday before the meeting, including a list of the top ASX 200 stocks to help guide your selections.

The meeting closed early at 3:15 pm. I hope to have a guest speaker in March to discuss bonds as a form of investing.

Have happy and safe Christmas, and may the new year bring much joy.

​
Malcolm Sanders
Convenor, Australian Shares and Stock Market
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 0408 194 469

We commenced with reviews from the Commsec website on the eleven sectors in the ASX. In particular, the Materials Index (XMJ) up 16% for the month and Real Estate (XRE) up 3% for the month, with the All Ords. (XAO) now at 8416 up 8%  for the year to date.

One of the sheets handed out today covered the current World Oil Export listing in which Iran is 16th in the world, so any impact of hostilities in the Middle East should not affect world oil supply to any great extent. Other handouts were on Select Harvest, Telix, Droneshield and Firetail Resources.

On the Long-Term sheet John still leads with DRO, followed by Margaret W with TLX and 3rd Margaret J with PME. During our meeting checking Wende’s stock pick WC8 (Wildcat Resources) rose from 26 cents on Friday to a peak of 33cents - almost a 26% rise.  It will be interesting if this price rise holds, as there were no significant announcements on the website.

On our Real Time Trading Les leads with PME, followed by Neville and Colin. Most of our members have received a dividend on this sheet.  Only a couple of stocks have not advised their ex-dividend date or dividend as of today, one being ANZ and the other WBC. You can still trade any time before our next meeting to get another dividend if it’s a financial advantage to do so.

​Our 2024 group photo was taken but we will, at our next meeting on 4th November, have Bev Lee retake another photo so we can include you in our archive photo lists.

On the monthly sheet Graeme still leads by large margin with SLC, followed by Malcolm with FTL and then Wende with JBH. There were 7 new monthly selection changes being Neville (FLX) Nola (BHP) Colin (FBU) John (BHP) Les (GOR) Jill (CIA) to report on at the November meeting.

Please let me know of you wish to sell and buy on the Real Time sheet or change to a new stock on the Monthly sheet.

Our next meeting will be Monday 4th November 2024.


Malcolm Sanders

Twelve members attended our meeting on Monday 2 September. We welcomed back Peter from his extended trip to UK and beyond, then commenced with several videos from the Commsec website, being updates on the reporting season for Wesfarmers, Woolworths, and BHP.  All were positive but subdued in their outlook. We had a quick look at a listing of ex-dividend dates from today until 30 September. There were a couple stocks which, if purchased today or tomorrow, would provide a dividend in the next six weeks. A couple of stocks that have performed well - such as BSE, MWY, SEQ and CUE -have had huge gains and should be viewed as highly speculative.

Handouts related to Pilbara Minerals; the Tiwi-Santos gas project including a map of the Barossa gas pipeline route to Darwin, and an updated sheet to 29 August on four stocks (CBA, WES, BHP, and RIO) respective sectors, ASX 20 to ASX 300 and the performance of the eleven sector codes; all were positive in the two months since 30 June 2024.

On the Long-Term sheet, John still leads with DRO followed by Margaret J with TLX and 3rd Margaret W with PME.

On our “Real Time Trading Dividend” listing, Colin leads with Brambles (BXB) with $12,474, closely followed Neville, Brent, and Wende. Dividends have been added for six of our members since the 5 August meeting. Les missed having his dividend added today as it will be due on 4th September - it will be added to the sheet by our next meeting. Jan had her dividend added today one day early by exception. In reality, there is no pay date included on this 2024 sheet for simplicity. Dividend is added after the ex-dividend date. Neville chose to hold RIO after a successful trade of WHC last month to gain the RIO dividend. You have one more trade available before you will reach the maximum of four for 2024.  John chose to sell YAL and buy WDS, likewise Malcolm chose to sell EBO and purchase BWF. If you wish to trade before our October meeting, please email or phone me.

On our Short-Term monthly selections Graeme leads with SCL with a profit value of $21,871, followed by Peter, TPC  with $3,096 profit, followed by Wende with JBH. There were four new monthly selection changes being Susan (CBA), Neville (HMC), John (DRO), Malcolm (LYL) to report on at the October meeting.

Our next meeting will be Monday 7th October 2024 at 2pm. 


Malcolm Sanders

Thirteen members attended our meeting on Monday 5th August.  We commenced with a 4-minute video from Commsec on the world-wide fall of markets last Friday and today, basically saying it was an overreaction to some US data and Japan rising interest rates from zero. It is likely markets will slowly recover from this sell off as both US and Australia begin their reporting season during the August -September period.

Handouts were - an All Ords graph, a Consensus Sell listing, Whitehaven Coal update, Liontown update, CSR scheme update, Albemarie (ALB) announcement that they will stop production of Lithium hydroxide in WA, and a 3 boxed listing comparison tables over the last 12 months compiled by Margaret.

On our long-term sheet John still leads with DRO, followed by Margaret W with TLX and Margaret J with PME. There are 14 members in positive territory and the next 4 months will no doubt bring a few more changes.

On our “Real Time Trading Dividend” listing, John leads with Yancoal (YAL) with $11,833, closely followed by Bill, Jill, and Neville. Dividends will start to be added to the sheet by our next meeting and added only after the Ex-dividend date. In reality, there is a pay date that I have not included on this 2024 sheet.  Neville chose to trade WHC and purchase RIO before the September meeting at an optional high price of WHC and a low price of RIO before the ex-dividend date. Likewise, Malcolm chose to sell NHC and purchase EBO. Les chose to hold his PME now he is back in the black. If you wish to trade before our September meeting, please email or phone me.

Margaret gave a presentation comparison of three sectors and 4 large companies as in the tables below:

Comparison of four shares in three sectors

We had 15 members attend our July meeting and welcomed back 2023 member Jill for Semester 2. All your selections will appear on the August sheets, Jill--good luck.
 
We reviewed our Bendigo Watchlist of February 2024 on which there are some 40 stocks across all 11 sectors. We are negative 5%, a reflection that many shares peaked in price during February and March when this listing was set up.
 
Handouts included a page on ANZ, DeGrey, Lynas & SCL plus Don’s ‘What to  look for 1st July’ sheet.  We all wanted to know from Graeme what facts or trends he used when he chose SCL in February, as they have risen 104%--just over doubled in price--during June.
 
On our long-term sheet John still leads with DRO followed by Margaret W with TLX and Margaret J with PME. As John would say, nothing is ever certain in the share market and DRO could fall as fast as it has risen between now and December.
 
On our “Real Time Dividend” listing Neville leads with BLD (Boral) with $11,468, closely followed by Wende, John & Bill. Between now and late August there will be few announcements on dividend returns. If you want a September or October dividend, now is the time to trade if you think another stock might pay a higher dividend than your current holding. All the current stock held should pay in September and October. Bill opted to sell COL (Coles) and buy NTD (NTAW Holdings). As soon as ex dividend dates are known I will include them into the spreadsheet.
 
After the break Don gave us some tips on how he analyses share buy and sell data and this short summary:
 
A couple of important things to consider when looking for a Stock to buy. Check the 12- month High (for the Share Price) and the 12- month Low. Look for a Stock that is above the Low, and now rising in price. Look for a Stock that has good liquidity, ie., many shares changing hands on any trading day and pay attention to the PE ratio. Avoid Stocks with a PE above 40 and be careful of Stocks with PE below 10. The sweet spot is a PE between 15 and 25.
 
Thanks Don.   Hopefully at our August meeting we will have a presentation on other market factors to incorporate into our planning/selection/and trading.
 
On our short term our monthly selections Graeme leads with SCL with a value of $20,378 followed by Peter TPC with $3,215 profit, followed by Les with PME and Malcolm with EMR. There were 2 new monthly selection changes Neville (WHC) & Les (life360) to report on at the August meeting

Our next meeting will be Monday 5th August 2024 at 2pm.
​
Malcolm Sanders       

We had 17 members attend our meeting on Monday 3rd June, a very good number considering a cold winter's day. We had a look at the Market Index web site. Of all the 11 sectors “Tech Stocks” or Information Technology ^XIJ has risen 27% for the last 12 months and 2.7% for the month of May. his sector far exceeds all the other sectors, some of which had negative growth. All dividend payments are finished now until September, except for NAB & ANZ, which payout in early July.

Handouts included the latest news on BHP/Anglo American takeover, CSR and Gold Hydrogen and a list of 5 red flags when investing.

When investing, a few simple rules should guide your selection, i.e. maybe from the top 200 companies (S&P ASX200/ XJO).  It is a mentally stimulating exercise trying to predict if the stock is a long-term or short term buy or sell, profitable and that P/E and D/E fall within your limits.

On our long-term selection sheet John leads with an incredible profit of $8,890 with his Drownshield DRO. If you keep this up until November, John, you will be the yearly winner. Margaret W is also well ahead with her selection TLX.

On our “Real Time Dividend” Listing Neville leads with his selection of Boral, followed by Brent with Qantas and John with Yancoal. Interestingly, Neville is one of only  12 members who have not traded their original selection. Let's see how it all pans out with the share market July to November. I acknowledge I need to correct one of Anne’s selection to NRW back in the April and MND on the current  sheet. Les has decided to buy PME before the July meeting.

After the break Bill gave us look into his trip to Sweden during May and with 9 photos that I projected onto the screen but were too small to fully appreciate. I have since separately emailed nine full sized images to all members. Thanks Bill, as only a few of us have been to Sweden.

Finally, on our short-term monthly selections Peter leads with his selection TPC with $3,155 profit, followed by Graeme, Susan and Malcolm. There were four new monthly selections for June to report on at the July meeting.

We will have time next month for Don to present some tips on investing.

Our next meeting will be Monday 1st July 2024 at 2pm.

Malcolm Sanders

Our meeting on 6th May again commenced with a 6-minute recorded podcast video by Chalis Mining (CHN) about their progress to produce a range of minerals across some seven sites in Western Australia. A handout was also included that was a further update on financial position and progress.

News about BHP on a bid to purchase Anglo American mine in South America for $52billion. The world copper price has risen 18% the last 12 months now at $4.44 per pound; and BHP has increased its copper output by 49% at the Olympic Dam site in South Australia. More than half the world's copper is used in electrical motors, wiring or anything that requires electricity. 

Our long-term stock selections remain positive overall for April with John leading with DRO with paper profit of $3,042.

After our tea break Don presented some insights on facts you should consider as an investor when buying or selling shares. The Financial Review has a lot of data across all stock sectors. The Earnings per share (EPS ),  Price to Earnings ratio (P/E ratio) and debit to equity (D/E ) are all very important. Remember the asset value includes the debit on infrastructure listed as assets. Whilst dividends may at first sight be attractive, companies often only pay out 70% of the profit. If they announce a buy-back of shares you need to realise this is funded by profits but is designed to hold or lift the share price by the reduction in the total number of shares on issue. The three banks NAB, ANZ & WBC have all announced about a 2% buyback in 2024.

Our “Real Time with Dividend” handout has been made bigger to a full A3 sheet with allowance for everyone to add /sell on a clear line. All figures are to 3 decimal places but rounded to whole numbers in most columns, so if you are checking bear this in mind. Neville is on top with BLD and Don with ANZ. Both Don and Wende have not received any dividend as the ex-dividend date is yet to tick over. Over the next 4 weeks, with no dividends being added other than for ANZ and MQG and a Federal budget due shortly, our results will be clearer.

Finally, our monthly short-term selections were positive for most of our 20 members.
There were 4 requests for new stocks being for SFR, FFM & RMI.

Our next meeting will be Monday 3rd June 2024 at 2pm.


Malcolm Sanders     

Another good rollup to our second meeting on Monday 4th March, with one visitor.  Welcome Brian G, good to see you again.

We had a look at the Top dividends & Upcoming dividends on the Market Index web site. During the month of February and March most ASX stocks reported their six-month financial returns and dividends. The whole market has been positive during February, however Lithium in 2024 is no longer sought after due to oversupply, hence spot prices are down 50% on 2023. Energy companies appear to gaining most with a handout of BOS energy.

Our Long-term selections are again a little mixed, however Wende was a clear winner with a $7,841 gain with her selection of WC8. Colin, Barbara, John, & Bill also had gains of over 20%.

On our Monthly selections, there was a mixed result overall. Four people selected a new stock for March. The best result for February was achieved by Nola, with a gain of $5,228 with AGY.

Our Bendigo Watchlist was in positive territory, with Graeme providing his selection for next meeting’s review.

Our Real Time selections report needs careful row review, with the adding of capital gains and dividends making for more discussion. A good example on this sheet was the selection by Jan in February of CBA that paid a dividend, then sold all the nett value less $40 to purchase WOW that paid a late dividend on 28th February. This was cited as trying to gain on capital gain with dividend cumulative sum. Only four transactions per year per person can be allowed for as the report sheet will become too deep. You can sell or buy at our meeting and this can be nominated by noting week one sell (S1) week two (S2) etc on the sheet, so you can sell or buy (B1), (B2) during the weeks between meetings. This can mean gaining a dividend or selling when the stock hits a high. One stock CUE was noted with a dividend of 2 cents with stock price of 6 cents on 22nd February. With an ex-dividend date of 21 March, they are now trading at around 11 cents. We still have several big companies and ANZ & NAB banks to report over the next 8 weeks, which will allow you to sell or buy on this work sheet.

Our next meeting will be Friday 5th April at 2 pm as Easter Monday is a Public Holiday.


Malcolm Sanders 

At our first meeting on February 5, 2024, we had 16 members (six new to the group), four apologies and one guest.  Our new Power Point welcome listed all members, the sector size of the Australian Market and a recent list of best performing stocks.  Our around the table short introduction by all present took up 15 minutes.

The structure of our meeting will continue similarly to last year. A sheet was handed out to be returned at the end of the meeting with a listing of companies in one of the 11 sectors, each member to circle two companies. This listing will go into a Bendigo Watchlist that automatically updates without further input and visually on the screen can be compared with the All Ord’s. Four members who were absent have been sent a sheet to nominate their selections. 

Our long-term selections covered a range of stocks that I will enter for our March meeting review on how they performed. For our short term/monthly listing we again had a great cross section, but only one person selected any of the 4 big banks.

Our third spread sheet, “Real Time Investing with Dividend”, gave members the option to choose a stock that will be ex-dividend in March, hence gain the dividend early; to add to their initial $9980 outlay.  A couple of members had done some research that reflected in their selection which was good to see. The March update will reflect as many ex-dividend dates as known. If the date has not been announced, I will add 6 months to the last 2023 known date. You may sell or buy at any time with a limit of three new buys for the year to keep the sheet reporting size manageable.  If this new sheet becomes too difficult, we may not continue. Franking credits will not be added to this listing.

Thank you everyone for your contribution.  At our March meeting we should have time to look at more of the stocks you may be interested in. Thanks to Margaret J for the stock record checking on all the selections.

Our next meeting will be Monday 4th March 2024 at 2pm at U3A Room 1.

Malcolm Sanders 
Convenor .

​Les received a jar of Vegemite for his assistance during the year and today’s presentation.

Our long-term stock winner was Margaret J with her XRF selection that gained 28% for the year and the customary home-made jar of jam was handed out. Margaret W came a close second with her selection of NXT that gained 26%. Well done.

Afternoon tea was a long break and we enjoyed a slice of fruit cake from the local supermarket.
 
After the break –  We looked at the implication of the dramatic fall in Lithium prices and the importance of the cost of production. Investors who take note of the Short Sellers list were forewarned of the downturn in lithium companies.  We then viewed the eight companies who gained over 50% in the ASX200 and the two companies who lost 50%.

The volatility of the market of the past 12 months was evident in the charts of CBA and BHP.

The final results of our selection charts demonstrated a difficult year for stock pickers.
 
Our short term stock winner was Neville with his selection of IND (INDUSTRIAL MINERALS LTD ) that rose with profit of $9,105. Neville also received a jar of jam. 

On a final note, thank you to all for your participation in 2023 and our best wishes for a safe and happy Christmas and New Year. A short reminder that Registration for U3A Enrolment in 2024 is Wednesday 10 January 9.30am and our first meeting of “Australian Shares and Stock Market” will be Monday 5th February 2024.


​John Hanlon & Malcolm Sanders

At our November meeting we noted Liontown (LTR) is still bouncing around as the share take over/purchase saga continues. We could not overlook how Neville’s pick last month of Industrial Minerals (IND) has risen 97% so he wins the pick of the month. Whether it was good judgement or luck it was a great increase. Also mentioned - Elders share price remains low, possibly from problems of poor foresight and possible debits. They have concentrated on Queensland, upgrading stores and merchandise and leaving and closing their bread-and-butter stores/farmers in Victoria and New South Wales.

Reports for both Cooper Energy (COE) and Calix Limited (CLX) by some analysts are predicted to have a 100% share price increase over the next 12 months. Neither pay dividends and both are small cap shares.

Our long-term selections also lost 1% in value during October. Leading on this portfolio is Margaret W with selection of NXT in positive territory. Our Bendigo 11 sector Watch list is still 12% down on the February purchase prices.

After the break – Liontown (LTR) was reviewed as last meeting we predicted Gina Rinehart would upset the offer of $3.00 per share by American Co. Abermarle, which proved correct.  Gina acquired 19% of LTR shares which gave her a seat on the board.  Abermarle withdrew their bid which caused the LTR share price to fall from $3.00 to $1.60.  Bell Potter came forward in with an underwriting to cover a $400m debt, so LTR can now complete their project with the input of Gina and her Hancock Resources.

Azure Minerals, AZS – up 45% since October 23rd and 1,200% for the year as SQM from Chile mounted a take-over offer.  Gina Rinehart stepped in and purchased 19% of shares.  Will SQM abandon their offer? Gina has displayed her faith in Lithium production.
The subject changed to world events and safe investments, taking into account the $250,000. Government guarantee on Bank investments.

We finished this section by viewing Westpac and the $7.2b profit and 70c dividend announced on the day.

Our Short-term selections also lost 1% for the month. Three members changed selections hoping for a turnaround in the next 4 weeks. Good Luck. Two shares; Wildcat Resources (WC8) and Deep Yellow Limited (DYL) have had gains of approx. 80%  in the last 4 months.

​The next and final meeting of Investment for 2023 will be on Monday 4th December at 2.00pm in our U3A Classroom 1.


John Hanlon and Malcolm Sanders

At our October meeting we welcomed a new member, Charles.  We reviewed the Costa Group take over by an American firm Paine Schwartz Partners. Current value of the Costa Group is $A 1.49 billion. Frank Costa started in Werribee and Bacchus Marsh as a grower and wholesaler with their own trucks, and later ventured into fruit in Queensland. Frank Costa was a longtime supporter of Geelong Football Club.

Lithium again is still centre stage of many companies including Liontown Resources trying to complete their infrastructure plants and have refined lithium for sale. With a late bid by Gina Rinehart for Liontown Resource competing with the last bid of $3.00 by Albemarle, the outcome is still uncertain as to who will have control. Gina held 16.4 % of the shares on 4th October.

Our long-term sections overall have lost value by 3.2% for the month. Leading is Margaret W with NXT. We had a short look at two videos one of Bega Cheese, and BOE (Boss Energy) a uranium supplier as world supply is low and there are low inventories. The world is looking for a stable country for supply and Boss Energy in Australia may meet some of this demand.

After the break – Prompted by the publicity given to Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, the matter of excessive payments was bought up.

While the $20 to $24million payment to Joyce was condemned by the public and press, it is of interest to compare with other CEO payments of $59m, $37m, $32m and even one executive paid $32 m which was $9m more than CEO.

Core Lithium CXO was viewed as it rose by 19% after the release of the annual report.

September is a big payment month for dividends with BHP and CBA paying out $96 billion fully franked.

Performance of the top 20 revealed only two companies in the red for the 12-month period. 

We finished this segment with a comparison of 12 month fixed term deposits between major banks and LaTrobe Financial.

Our Short Term selections also lost 3% for the month. Five members changed selections hoping for a turnaround in the next period. Good Luck. 

The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 6th November at 2.00pm in our U3A room No.1.

John Hanlon and Malcolm Sanders.

We had look at listing of Ex Dividend dates and pay dates for September as most companies have now reported their annual accounts and many have already paid out their dividends. Most of the banks have paid a reasonable dividend however the Bank of Queensland and the Bendigo bank still offer good returns that are 100% franked.

We had a look at stock graphs for MAD, MIN and ORE for the month and for the year they are are still positive and increasing.  Many of our long term selections have decreased. Margaret J and Margaret W however are still leading with positive gains with XRF & NXT respectively. The share market has fluctuated this year and until or if, China resumes purchase of iron ore and grains our market will remain flat.

After the break we started this segment by again visiting short selling as we had the example of CXO – Core Lithium which was head of the list of the most shorted stocks, retreating from No 1 to No 13 on the list.  This was the result of price drop when the company announced a share purchase plan at a low price to attract money for further development.

The ‘shorts’ had anticipated this and took their advantage to sell.  The message is to consider the ‘short list’ before you buy. You can find a Shorts listing on web site “Market Index, Popular Pages, ASX short sale data”. https://www.marketindex.com.au/

The lithium market was then viewed, in particular LTR-Liontown which has received its 4th takeover offer from Albemarle at $3.00 per share.

Franked Dividends were then discussed, in particular BHP at 8.6% and Woodside at 9.94% which are very healthy returns from two major companies.

Qantas promoted general discussion, also the debacle of Snowy 2 blowout from $2 billion to $12 billion.

There were a couple changes in the monthly listing by 4 members.

Again thanks to Margaret and Les who ran the August meeting.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 2nd October at 2.00pm in our U3A room No.1.

​
John Hanlon and Malcolm Sanders.

Both Malcolm and John were away on holidays, so Margaret and Les ran the August session of Investment.

We started with the Monthly and Long-Term selections and talked about the sideways movement in the market which has been happening for the past three months.

We then moved on to discuss the ASX Indexes for the End of Financial year 2022-2023 and noted that the ASX Midcap index had performed slightly better than several of the other indexes.

Looking at the ASX Sectors for the End of Financial year 2022-2023 there was a much wider range of performance. The Information Technology sector returned a gain of over 30% whereas the Materials and Resources Sectors showed a gain of 17%. At the other end of the scale the Health Care and Consumer Staples Sectors had returned less than 5%.

To complete this we looked at the charts of a few Information Technology and Materials shares.

On a slightly lighter note, we looked at what happens from 4pm to 4.11pm on the ASX. This informative piece came from Market Index on 23 July 2023, and included information about the Closing Single Price Auction which serves several key functions in the market.

After afternoon tea, Les spoke about Investment Opportunities with Net Zero in 2050. This presentation included charts showing where Uranium is mined and used in energy production around the world.  The rising world price for uranium causing reopening of mines in Australia was shown. We saw charts showing the surprising decline in prices for critical metals used by renewables last financial year and this financial year. This implied lack of demand and increased supply by new entrants to the market, as forecast by The World Bank.

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Margaret Jenkins & Les Rodgers

At our July meeting we had a quick look at US market and its flow on  to the Australian market.  The Australian market remains  flat with some days it recovers but overall, no change for the month.  LTR shares are holding their rise of June which indicates the takeover is likely to proceed. In our Bendigo 11 sector “Watchlist” only LUMOS DIAGNOSTICS HOLDINGS  (LDX) stood out with a rise of 500% from the start of trading during the day of our 3rd July meeting.

We looked at analyst’s report reviews by Bell Potter on Bega (BGA), CSR, Azure (AZS), and 4DMedical (4DX).
 
Our review of our monthly short-term selections saw Val & Margaret  J  still leading by a good margin.

Our long-term selections Margaret J led the month with XRF. Everyone was able to change their long-term selections and absent members were able to email or phone in a change. 

After the break we learned of scams on Facebook and Instagram where artificially generated reproductions known as deepfake, is used to swindle victims by impersonating prominent business people and trusted brands.  A generated deepfake of an image of Matt Conyn CEO of Comm Bank recently appeared urging people to invest in certain funds, thereby exposing personal bank details.

The ASX200 is up 9.7% for 22/23 compared with – 10.2% the previous year.

We then viewed Morning Wrap on Marked Index website with an in depth look at TLX, also AGL with a forecast of doubling profit next 12 months.  On lithium we looked at LTR and AKE.

The session finished by comparing the Dogs of ASX200 of 2023 with the Dogs of 2022. A copy of the table was emailed out after the meeting to all.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 7th August at 2.00pm in our U3A room No.1.  Margaret Jenkins and Les Rodgers will lead the group as both John & Malcolm will be on holidays.


John Hanlon and Malcolm Sanders

At our June meeting we had a look at US debt limit crisis and its flow on to the Australian market. Minimum drawdown limits on managed super funds revert to pre-COVID limits on 1 July 2023, so you or your advisor/provider need to readjust your payments. Everyone now has a printed copy of the table. Handouts covered Challenger, AMP, Gold tracker, Ex-dividend dates, MIN and our selection lists.
 
Our 11 sectors selections we made in February in the Bendigo Watchlist is still negative by some -$38,000 or 10.5 % negative. This is reflected by all stocks that were purchased in early February when the All-Ord’s Index was 7745. Today the All Ord’s is only 7331. One of our stocks, FXO, is no longer listed and I will follow up where this $9993 investment has gone. I have followed up on this; on 15 May 23 FXO named changed and now trade as QOR.
 
Our long-term selections Margaret led the month with XRF.  We are still optimistic stocks will recover. If you have a good reason, you can change your long-term selection at the 3rd July meeting.
 
After the break we viewed Lithium Stock LTR, Lion Town, up 119% for the year and still in an upward trend after rejecting a take-over offer from Abbermale.  Also, AKE Alkem up 24% which had a partial merge with Livent the worlds no 3 Lithium Miner, and LLL Leo Lithium, which entered a strategic agreement with Glenfang Chinas largest lithium miner, up 53%.
 
We then focused on Tech stocks GTK Glentrack group up 158%, WTC Wisetech Global up 78%, TNE Technology one up 51%.
 
Finally, we compared returns on bank term deposits compared with LaTrobe financial.
 
On our short-term sections many of our members changed their selections. Val with EHE was the June winner $2,411 increase, and Brian second with RSG and close third Don with EVN fourth Les with XRF.
 
The next meeting of the Investment class will be on Monday 3rd July at 2.00pm in U3A Classroom 1.
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John Hanlon and Malcolm Sanders

At our May meeting we had a quick look at the share market, which has been up and down for the month, with some gains and some losses. The big gain was XRF Industrial Group that manufactures and markets precious metal products, specialized chemicals and instruments for the scientific, analytical and mining industries. The XRF share price rose from $1.02 to $1.34; a 31% increase.

Les Rogers spoke of the prospect that coal will remain a major source of energy worldwide beyond 2050. Coal usage will need to decrease by a factor of 20 and solar & wind energy will need massive increases in output if the targets for net zero emissions are to be achieved. This will have impacts on the share market. (Article referred to by Les: Vinichenko, Cherp and Jewell (2021) Historical precedents and feasibility of rapid coal and gas decline required for the 1.5◦C target.  One Earth 4 1477-1490 October 22, 2021.) 

Our 11 sectors selections we made in February in the Bendigo Watchlist is still negative by some -$31,000 or 9% negative. This is reflected by all stocks that were purchased in early February when the All Ords Index was 7745 now the index at 1st May is 7501 down 3% in 3 months.

In the monthly short-term listing Les Rogers’s selection of XRF gave a profit of $3,131 and in the Long Term listing Margaret Jenkins with XRF had a profit of $4,172. This result was rewarded at the end of the meeting with chocolates for both Margaret & Les.
 
After the break we re-visited the matter of short selling which has recently been attracting media reports.  As short selling can have a very negative effect on a company’s share price, it’s a matter of being aware.

Broker Consensus was discussed with opinions as to the pro and cons of taking their advice with attention as to the date of this advice.

Scams have increased 80% in the past year and with banks only compensating 2 to 5% according to the ASIC, are of great concern.  Discussion took place on how we may protect our assets from this scourge.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 5th June at 2.00pm in Classroom 1.

John Hanlon and Malcolm Sanders

At the April meeting we had a full room of members and had a short look at the March 2023 drop in share values across the 11 sectors. AXO was down -1.4% for March. We ran a short introduction on the U3A website on how easy it is to see notes on Investment and news on all groups.

Wende Sturgess gave comments on “Critical Rare Earth Metals” and where the world is heading as most of these are sourced from China and countries are now realizing alternate supply is required. Tesla has already steadily reduced the rare earth materials required to build its EV systems by approximately 25% since 2017. Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter uses 920 pounds of rare earths per plane?

Lithium is also major mineral now in all EV and storage batteries and Australia holds some 80% of the world reserves. Natural graphite, used in cathodes of lithium-ion batteries needs a mere 600% increase to its current production to meet future demand. Liontown Rescources shares rose 60% last week as a result of a takeover offer, the shares are now trading steady at around $2.50. Our Long-term listing; Neville Gibb is leading with his selection of ALK with a  positive of $1,951. Our Short-term monthly listing Val Allen leads with her choice of EHE which was positive  $2,796. The listings were mostly negative with 14 of our members in the red.

After the break John spoke on the Lion Town offer from American Co. Abermail which resulted in a 68% rise in share price and the reasons for a possible sale.

Reference was then given to the bank collapse of Silicon Valley and smaller banks in America and Credit Suisse in Europe and was purchased by UBS, which had a negative effect in world share markets – did it create a buying opportunity?

Focus turned to Short Selling with Hindenburg Research targeting Block-SQ2 and Webit Nano- WBT, a newcomer to the ASX shorted on its entrance price on listing.

We then re-assured ourselves by viewing market statistics which revealed since 1900 the market has returned 13.2% P.A. average with 23 negative years and 99 positive years.

At the March meeting we welcomed 3 new members Don Allen, Val Allen, and Warren Sun.

The updated 11 sector selections from the February meeting were distributed.

The short term and long-term selections were reviewed along with several members adding their selected stocks to our listings.  The Energy sector in February was only 1 the 2 sectors that had minor gains, overall, the XAO fell 3.3% in February.

An example how to obtain double dividends was presented.  This involves buying one stock before the ex-dividend date then selling that stock post ex dividend then from the proceeds buy a second stock before its ex-dividend date.  If both stocks are 100% franked this also increases the returns.

John presented the subject of Short Selling which is one of the most difficult concepts for novice investors to grasp. The goal is to profit from a falling market.

This is done by “borrowing” shares in a company through a stockbroker to sell at the current market price, then buying those shares back later when the shares have fallen.  The difference in price is the profit.

You then return the shares to the original shareholder.  With a minimum investment of $50,000.00 its big business and has a huge effect on the market.  Stock pickers need to be aware of the Open ASX Short Position list, as this displays the companies targeted.  BEAR EFT is a fund that covers this topic.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 3rd April at 2.00pm in our U3A room.

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John Hanlon and Malcolm Sanders