We had a quick look at share market since December and looking forward into 2023 where experts expect a steady rise if China re-enters the iron ore and coal market.

There are 11 sectors in the Australian share market, and this is a big difference to the US. In Australia 48% of the market is made up for financials & materials. In the US IT & Health care make up 41% and financials and materials only 15%.

The members were asked to pick 2 stocks in each of the 11 sectors so we can see the results each month on a Bendigo Invest Watch listing that is live.

Everyone then chose their “monthly” short term stock for review at the March meeting.

John spoke of the importance of spreading investments.  He then referred to the share market in which he has been involved since 1960, and different strategies for investing. John pointed out that he is not a stock picker but prefers the safety of the top 20 shares that pay 100% franked dividends which provide a regular income while also keeping an eye out for opportunities in times of market downturn.

We then investigated broker consensus and company dividends yields, finishing on self-education found at the bottom of the Market Index page.

Then finally, around the table members chose their Long-Term stock to be tabulated and reviewed each month in a spreadsheet.
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Malcolm Sanders

​At the December meeting of Investment, we announced the winners of the two competitions that have been run each month. John Hanlon won the Monthly Selection competition and Nola McDonald won the Long-Term selection. Both were awarded the usual jar of marmalade plus the applause of the other participants.

We looked at the Bank Reporting Season Scorecard by Hugh Dive which analysed how Westpac, ANZ. CBA, NAB and Macquarie had performed during 2022. We then touched on a light hearted topic of “Why our financial abilities peak at age 53” by James Gruber before considering what sectors of shares we would include in a portfolio constructed for 2023.

Malcolm Sanders showed us the long-term results of the portfolios which had been selected by John, Malcolm, Wende, Les and Bill in 2021. He then awarded Bill a prize of a loaf of bread for his portfolio increasing by 22% in 2022. There was much hilarity at this award.

Margaret Walshe on behalf of the group thanked Margaret Jenkins for her efforts as Convenor of Investment for the past nine years and presented Margaret with a Certificate of Appreciation which all the members of Investment signed. There were more speeches by Malcolm Sanders and Pauline Bailey. Margaret responded saying that she had enjoyed her time as Convenor of Investment, and that they were a wonderful group to be part of.

Our thanks to Bev Lee for coming to take photos of the group again this year.=

​The first session for 2023 will be on Monday 6th of December at the new starting time of 2pm.  It will be led by new convenors Malcolm Sanders and John Hanlon.
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Margaret Jenkins

At the November meeting of Investment, we looked at which sectors of the share market had made the most gains over the last year, and also for the period from the beginning of this financial year to mid October 2022. The sectors looked at included the energy, information technology, resources and financial sectors as well as the materials, communication services, health care and industrials sectors.

We also studied the possible effects of the recent Federal Budget on the share market.

Another segment we had was on the best shares that we had all come across during the month.

Malcolm Sanders showed us a comparison on the takeover offer of Pendal by Perpetual, and posed the question is it worth it? The figures he showed were very interesting.

I am pleased to announce that Malcolm Sanders and John Hanlon will be taking over as joint Convenors of Investment in 2023. I have enjoyed my years as Convenor since 2013, but feel that it is time for a new approach. My thanks to everyone who has contributed to our discussions during the last nine years.  

The final meeting of Investment for 2022 will be held on Monday 5th December 2022 at 1.30pm in our U3A room.

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Margaret Jenkins  

At the September meeting of Investment, we looked at some high yielding shares which had been suggested by Market Index. Although interested in the yield of these shares, we also looked at the total return of each share over a twelve-month period, which is also very important. All the shares looked at had a yield greater than 5% per annum.

Malcolm Sanders showed us about some interesting aspects of various returns from shares which can are seen on the Bendigo Bank trading platform, and which are not readily available on the CommSec platform.

To complete the afternoon, we noted that Mark Bouris had visited the Glasshouse in Benalla in early September as the guest of Ray White Benalla.  Mark had spoken on what the increasing interest rate increases were going to mean to the amount that lending institutions would be willing to lend as a loan for house purchases.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 3 October at 1.30pm in the U3A room.

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Margaret Jenkins 

At the August meeting of Investment, we looked at an article by Shane Oliver titled “A Tonic for Turbulent Times: My Nine Tips for Investing”. This article went back to basics which is always good to think about, especially in the current climate of high inflation, increasing interest rates and uncertainties overseas.

We also looked at a range of shares which had been suggested by Graham Hand and Anthony Aboud. It was suggested that these shares offered potential in the current market.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 5 September at 1.30pm in our U3A room.
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Margaret Jenkins

At the July meeting of Investment, we looked at figures for the financial year 2021-2022. These figures included gains or losses for each Sector of the market, as well as for the Australian Equity Indices. We noted that for the financial year there had been an overall loss of approximately 10% across most Indices, with the exception of the Small Ordinaries Index which had lost 21% during the past twelve months.

Looking at the Sectors of the Market, we noted that the Utilities and Energy sectors had gained over 20% each, whilst the Consumer Discretionary and Information Technology Sectors had lost over 20% overall.  As usual it is important to consider each stock itself, as individual stocks can vary quite markedly.

In the second section of our meeting, we looked at six Exchange Traded Funds which had been recommended by The Motley Fool as the best performing ETFs in 2021. We noted the five most important stocks in each ETF as well as the per cent return for 1,3,5 and 10 years. To bring this up to date we added the current price, the current distribution and the return per centage for the past 12 months.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 1 August 2022 at 1.30pm in the U3A room.
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Margaret Jenkins

At the June meeting of Investment we reviewed recent events which had influenced changes in the share market in the last month. These included the increase in inflation by 2.1% for the quarter, the volatility of the US market, the China downturn due to their strict COVID policy, the Reserve bank starting to increase rates and the Australian election on May 21 2022.

We noted that the Australian market was down by 5.4% for the year to date. During the past month only the Energy, Material and Industrial sectors had shown an increase overall.

We looked at the major problems facing Australia at the moment such as the huge debt that Australia has accumulated during the pandemic, rising food, petrol and energy costs which are contributing to rising inflation, climate change influences and shortage of staff in a number of areas such as hospitality, retail and engineering. We then had a discussion on how this could affect the share market in the next six months and how to cope with the current situation.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 4 July 2022 at 1.30pm in the U3A room.

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Margaret Jenkins  

At the May meeting of Investment we looked at a video about Bonds supplied by FIIG, a major dealer in Bonds.  The video started with the increase in life expectancy of retirees from 1931 to 2011, and the increasing need for retirees to provide at least in part for their life after retirement.

The video suggested that equities could be risky investments and that real estate may not be readily liquid if funds were required.  On the other hand Bonds, which were really a loan to a company, could be redeemed easily.

To balance this promotional video, one of our members, Les Rodgers gave us his experience with Bonds after our break. Several of our members thanked Les for providing us with a balanced view of investing in Bonds.

We also mentioned ASIC’s (Australian Securities and Investment Commission) crackdown on financial content from people not holding a suitable licence.  Whilst this was primarily aimed at webinars and podcasts, we noted that any information provided needed to be accurate and balanced.

Finally we circulated figures from the Chief Economist produced for the Australian Government which showed the Australian resources and energy exports for 2021/2022. These figures were further divided into the contribution from specific mining sectors such as Steel, Ire Ore, Metallurgical  and Thermal coal, Gas, Oil, uranium etc. The mining sector contributes approximately 10% of GDP.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 6th June at 1.30pm in our U3A room.
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Margaret Jenkins

At the April meeting of Investment we looked at an article by Lewis Jackson which described the Market as entering a new phase. This conclusion was reached due to a series of factors including the Ukrainian Russian conflict, the continued high metal prices and the increasing inflation in both the US and the UK. The article talked about four sectors and 17 stocks which will be affected.

Sometimes our monthly selections show up interesting facts, and this month it gave us two stocks involved with lithium mining which had made very substantial gains for the month.  It will be interesting to see if CXO and AGY continue with the momentum they showed during March.

The next meeting of Investment is on Monday 2nd May in our U3A room at 1.30pm. As part of the program we will be viewing a 40 minute video sent to us by FIIG on Investing in Bonds. This topic has been touched on before. However, having something from one of the main investment houses on Bonds should be worthwhile viewing. All welcome.
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Margaret Jenkins

At the March meeting of Investment, we looked at the Reporting Season in February which had just been completed. Whilst the reporting season had been strong, the shares overall for February showed a slight decrease, but nowhere near as bad as in January.

We looked at an article by Jun Bei Liu  about Six Stocks which were on his radar following the strong reporting season, and then compared those stocks to six blue chip stocks which had also reported.

Due to the choppiness of the market, we then looked at a couple of gold stocks and compared these to two gold based ETFs which are also available on the market.

After the break John Hanlon led the Group in an interesting discussion about Managed Funds. In these uncertain times overseas with the conflict in Ukraine these Managed Funds and also Mortgage Funds can be a more reliable alternative to the share market. Thank you John for your insight into managed funds.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 4th April at 1.30pm in our U3A room.
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Margaret Jenkins
   

At the February meeting of Investment we welcomed 16 members who included two new members and two returning members.

We looked at the January 2022 , and a related article by Shane Oliver about Share Market Falls. On the same theme we mentioned five shares which were regarded by Roger Montgomery as quality shares, his view being that quality shares fall less and recover first in a share market downturn such as we have just experienced.  

After our tea break, we had a good discussion regarding what papers or articles each of us follow and read. This probably gave our newer members an insight into what other members consider to be worthwhile advice.

​The next meeting of Investment will be on Monday 7th March 2022 at 1.30pm in our U3A room. 
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Margaret Jenkins 

At the December Meeting of Investment held in our U3A room, winners of the two small competitions that we have held throughout the year were announced.

Les Rodgers won the Monthly Selection competition whilst Malcolm Sanders won the Long Term selection.  Both winners were awarded the usual jar of jam.

During the latter part of 2021 Malcolm Sanders had asked members of Investment to suggest a portfolio worth $300,000 for a new retiree. The idea was that we ran with these portfolios for four months, and then saw which portfolio made the biggest increase. We had five people who participated and the winner was Les Rodgers who gained another jar of jam and a loaf of bread to go with it. Thank you Malcolm for running this competition.

During the first part of the afternoon Malcolm showed us an aspect of his share dealing, and also accessed two videos for us to watch.

After afternoon tea we looked at nine shares to watch. These different companies came from the Materials, Information Technology and Health Care sectors and all had interesting aspects which made them worthwhile putting on a watch list for a couple of months.

As this is our last report for 2021, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas. Hope to see you all again in 2022.

Margaret Jenkins

It was so good to have the November meeting of Investment in the U3A room and to see everyone again. We welcomed a new member Tony Bayfield to our group, and hope he enjoys and participates in our discussions.

We looked at an article “Road Bumps and Opportunities on the Way to a Cleaner Future” by John Cowling which covered seventy three countries including Australia which have targeted net zero emissions before 2050. In the article the last point listed was key minerals required to achieve this target which included lithium, nickel and rare earths.

The second article we looked at was “Four Key Materials for Batteries – and Nine companies that will benefit”. We studied the nine companies listed including what materials they were exploring for and where, the current price of shares in the company, and the yield the company was returning to shareholders.

The final meeting of Investment for 2021 will be held on Monday 6th December 2021 at 1.30pm in the U3A room at the Seniors Centre.
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Margaret Jenkins  

The October meeting of Investment was held On Line due to COVID restrictions. This year we have had to be adaptable with using Zoom at very little notice.

We looked at three demographic themes which could shape investments for the future. These were an ageing population, population growth and a growing middle class. One aspect of the discussion was that Australia had the 13th largest economy in the world, but with just over 25 million people it was comparatively rich on a per capita basis. We also noted that the COVID pandemic has seen substantial population movement from the cities to regional areas.

We also noted that CommSec had produced a list of 22 income producing stocks, all with returns of 3.6% or above. The majority of the charts of these stocks were going sideways and included some banks, shopping centres and some industrial stocks.

Due to the fact that the numbers allowed in the Senior’s Centre are currently capped at 30, and the Senior Citizens are playing bowls on a Friday afternoon, we have changed our meeting time to 1.30pm on the first Monday of the month. So we are looking forward to seeing you all on Monday 1 November 2021 at 1.30pm.
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Margaret Jenkins

​The September meeting of Investment was held by Zoom. We welcomed 10 participants including Pat Richardson from Wangaratta who is conducting a group similar to our group through U3A Wangaratta.

Australian equities marked the end of the current Reporting Season in August with an eleven month run of gains, the longest streak in 78 years. We noted the increased dividends paid by a number of companies, including the large miners which had profited from a high iron ore price for an extended period. We noted that the Iron Ore price had decreased considerably in the last month.

We discussed the fact that large amounts of cash were available for shareholders through the Buy Backs offered by both Commonwealth Bank and Woolworths. Wesfarmers were also having a return of capital to shareholders.

We looked at 10 franked income stock ideas for Australian Investors discussed in a special report by Morningstar. These were projected returns for 2021/2022 and needed to be assessed against current charts for each stock.

​The next meeting of Investment will be by Zoom on Friday 1st October 2021 at 2pm. The reason for this is that the Senior Citizens are playing bowls on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday afternoons, and there is a limit of 20 people in the whole building at any time. An invitation to the Zoom meeting will be sent out nearer the time.
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Margaret Jenkins

Due to lockdown the August meeting of Investment was by Zoom with nine of us on line.

Having found last month that the All Ordinaries increased by 24% last financial year, we examined changes in our long term selections over the same period. We also looked at an extended range of stocks spread over various sectors and ASX Indexes with the aim to understand which stocks had outperformed the overall market. Many of these stocks examined were popular shares which many of our members possibly held.

Both LICs (Listed Investment Companies) and ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) have an increasing presence in the Australian Stock Market. We looked at the similarities and differences between LICs and ETFs in respect of pay outs and tax obligations.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Friday 3rd September 2021 at 2pm. An Email will be sent nearer to the date to indicate whether it will be in our U3A room or by Zoom.
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Margaret Jenkins

We were pleased that our July meeting of Investment was face to face in our U3A room and to see John Archer back with us. Malcolm Sanders gave us an update on the retiree with $300,000 to invest and how the two portfolios we had seen at the previous meeting were increasing. 

We discussed the fact that the ASX 200 had risen by 24% during the 2020-2021 financial year which had just ended. This is apparently the biggest rise on record for that index. We looked at the various indices and sectors and how they had fared during the financial year.   We noted that the biggest increases were by the ASX All Technology index which increased by 39%, whilst the Consumer Discretionary Sector had increased by 42%.

We also looked at some distinctly upwardly trending shares, including which sector they belonged to and what their dividend yield and franking was.

To complete the afternoon we discussed an article on “Finding sustainable dividend stocks on the ASX”.

The next meeting of Investment will be on Friday 6th August 2021 at 2pm in the U3A room at the Seniors Centre.

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Margaret Jenkins

Due to the COVID lockdown, our June Investment meeting was held via Zoom. It was good that eight members were able to meet up, and we had a great discussion.

John Hanlon had suggested the topic of the month which was how to invest $300,000 for someone who was just retiring. We had four scenarios presented by different members who had obviously put a lot of thought into their suggestions.

We enjoyed the comments which followed about the suitability or otherwise of certain selected shares. Some of the scenarios even took into account that our theoretical retiree may not have much investment capability. So, a lot of possibilities were covered. Thank you to Malcolm, Bill, John and Les for sharing your investment plans with the rest of the group.
  
The next meeting of Investment will be in our U3A room on Friday 2nd July 2021 at 2pm.
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Margaret Jenkins  

At the May meeting of Investment we looked at the Australian Shareholders’ Association 10 top stocks for 2021 as compiled by Martin Roth. We studied a number of parameters associated with these stocks including their chart for the past 12 months, the market capitalisation, PE ratio and debt to equity ratio. The group decided to revisit these stocks later in the year to see if the predictions of good growth had materialised.

In the second part of the session we looked at various reasons for selling shares. This was prompted by an article which said that institutional investors often didn’t take as much care in selling stocks as they did in buying them.

One of our members John Hanlon has suggested a great topic for our June meeting. He is interested in how members would advise a person about to leave the workforce with $300,000 to invest for their retirement. To date one member has sent a very detailed strategy, and I am sure there will be more.

The next meeting of Investment is currently scheduled for Friday 4th June 2021 at 2pm in the U3A Room at the Senior’s Centre.  This will be replaced by a Zoom session if the current lockdown is extended.  Class members will be notified of a change by email.  

Margaret Jenkins

We did not have an April meeting of Investment due to Good Friday falling this year on the first Friday of April.

However, the next meeting of Investment will be on Friday 7th May 2021 at 2pm in the U3A room.
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Margaret Jenkins

Members of Investment enjoyed the first face to face meeting of Investment in March 2021 for 12 months.
 
We noted that the Materials and Financial sectors had shown the strongest growth in the past month, whereas the Information Technology and Materials sectors had shown the greatest growth over the past year.  We discussed how this growth was contributed to by some shares in each sector and not others.
 
In view of the record low interest rates, we discussed whether Property or Shares was the more appealing investment at the moment. We looked at the potential for growth, income provided from both, maintenance and transaction costs and the advantages of investing in both Property and the Share market. Members also talked about the risk of an investment in both Property and the Share market.
 
We have started our Monthly and Long-Term Selections for 2021 with some interesting stock selections. No doubt we will enjoy following what has been selected.
 
Unfortunately, we are not having an April meeting due to Good Friday being on the first Friday in April.
 
The next meeting of Investment will be on Friday 7th May at 2pm in the U3A room at the Senior’s Centre.
 
Margaret Jenkins 
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The share market has started 2021 with a slight increase in the All Ordinaries since the beginning of January, some stocks in the Information Technology and Material Sectors being the main contributors  to this rise.  
  
The next meeting of Investment will be on Friday 5th March 2021 at 2pm in the U3A room at the Seniors Centre.
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Margaret Jenkins

Due to internal alterations at the Seniors Centre, the first meeting of Investment will be held on Friday 5th. February 2021 at 2pm by Zoom.  An invitation to this meeting will be Emailed on Thursday 4th February to all those who have enrolled for Investment. 

Most of the participants in Investment in 2020 have sent in their re-enrolment form. However, there are a small number who have not forwarded their form as yet.

We anticipate that our March meeting of Investment on Friday 5th March at 2pm will be a face to face meeting in our U3A room.
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Margaret Jenkins 5762 6944

Our last Investment meeting for 2020 was held using Zoom on the 4th December 2020.

​During the year we have kept our Monthly Selections and Long Term Selections going, with some members of Investment who are not involved with Zoom opting to keep their selections going too throughout the year.
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At the December meeting we congratulated Bill Parris on winning the Long Term selection for 2020. Bill chose FMG and due to the rocketing iron ore price, FMG has had a great run this year.

Congratulations also to Les Rodgers for winning the Monthly selection. This is probably the harder competition to win as one has to be agile and watch market movements. Les’s choice of AVA for October and November saw him come from 6th spot in November to winning in December.   Well done Les.

During the meeting we noted that Market Index has a re vamped website, with lots of market relevant information on their front page.

We discussed that the Energy and Financial Sectors had made the greatest gains during November and looked at some of the movers in both the Large cap and Medium cap stocks in these sectors.

Like all the other U3A Benalla groups we look forward to getting back to face to face meetings in the New Year.

Best wishes to all members of Investment for 2021.

Margaret Jenkins