Reporting on a share watch

The shares recommended for study in my article of February 17, have mostly performed remarkably. It has thus been possible through research to make money in a financial market, exhibiting all signs of a protracted convulsion. UBS, the once mighty Swiss bank was described this week by The Financial Times, as being "rotten to the core".

The rot in UBS, caused a dramatic fall in its share price of 35 per cent since January 1. Bonus hungry bankers subsidised its weak investment arm with its wealth management profits. This was responsible for the $37.1 billion of credit market write-downs.

Malta does not have yet widespread knowledge of what happened to its money in UBS. The truth will out, whether wholesome or not.

Lack of transparency can definitely ruin our already parlous state of investment sentiment. It is important that investor morale be nourished by a truthful and balanced portrayal of world investment opportunities. ABB is up 30 per cent; CPFL is up by 20 per cent; Agreco is up two per cent; Kazakhmys is up 14 per cent; Société Général is up three per cent; BHP Billiton is up 12 per cent.

There has been no change in price for Peter Hambros Mining, but it is going to enter Footsie 100 and is now second mining company in Russia.

Nokia is 28 per cent down. It reported a 25 per cent increase in profits, but 49 per cent was expected. The company has the highest credit consensus in the world according to the 24 Ore Milan financial newspaper.

In its prestigious Lex column, the Financial Times said that reaction to the recent Nokia Stock Exchange was overdone. Downward economic movements in Nokia are further exacerbated by its unavoidable use of the dollar. HSBC and Standard Chartered are at the top of British Bank shares analyst choices. The expected trillion dollar loss in subprime mortgage is only a fraction of what was lost in the dotcom boom. It is only to be expected that some Maltese money has been navigated into the subprime UBS morass, as happened to a prominent German regional bank, which lost half a billion.

Maltese money deciding to quit Switzerland might decide to go into gold or diamonds. Our gold forecast was accurate. It went down once the International Monetary Fund started its gold sales. Diamonds can now be produced industrially, but Australia 'fancy yellows' demand a premium. Philip Manduca, or Falzon Sant Manduca as he is known in Malta, continues to dominate the CNBC and Bloomberg screens as a forecaster of gold price movements.

Mr Azzopardi Vella, currently economic consultant with DBR Investments Ltd, has promoted the Malta Development Fund and advised S & P.

johnazzopardivella@hotmail.com