Colombia: An Attractive Emerging Market for 2010 and Beyond

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The Colombian economy is the third largest in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico.The country has a population of 44 million and is rich in many natural resources such as oil, natural gas, titanium, copper and uranium.

Colombia’s oil and natural gas deposits are one of the largest in Latin America. About 50% of the oil is exported to overseas markets.The country also produces surplus electricity from hydro-power that is exported to neighboring countries like Ecuador and Venezuela. The left-wing guerrilla group FARC has largely been confined to the jungles and the nasty drug wars that used to ravage the country are long over. Violence is down significantly though occasional shootings and drug-related crime do occur in places like Bogota, Medellin and Cali.The current administration of President Alvaro Uribe is making all the right moves in converting Colombia as an economic powerhouse in the region.

One of the main factors that makes Colombia attractive for investment is the expected  ratification of Free Trade Agreement with the US. As a result of signing a  new military cooperation agreement with the US, the Colombian government expects that the US Congress to ratify the trade agreement. Other points that support Colombia include government investment in education, transportation infrastructure, etc. In fact, many of the professionals in the country are well educated and are bilingual with some having graduate level education from US universities.

The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Colombia was $10.6B in 2008, the highest ever in recorded history and a 17% jump over 2007. In the first half of this year about $4.8B in capital flowed into the country according to ProExport. The main sectors that attract foreign capital are mining, oil and manufacturing. The US is the largest foreign investor in Colombia and accounted for 36% of FDI in first half of 2009. Some of the US companies with operations in Colombia include Coca Cola (KO), Kimberly Clark (KMB) and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (GT).

FDI flows into Colombia

Colombia-FDI

Source: ProExport

How to invest in Colombia?

Unfortunately just two Colombian ADRs are listed in the organized US exchanges.The banking company Bancolombia (CIB) and oil major Ecopetrol(EC) trade on the NYSE. Bancolombia is up about 94% YTD.

Another simple and easy to gain exposure to Colombian equities is to invest in Global X/InterBolsa FTSE Colombia 20 ETF (GXG) which started trading in February this year. This ETF tracks the 20 most liquid stocks in the Colombian market. Bancolombia and Ecopetrol account for about 38% of the portfolio. The NAV has shot up about 96% since inception.

The Complete List of Canadian Stocks Traded in NASDAQ

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The Complete List of Canadian companies listed on the NASDAQ market as of Nov, 2016 are:

S.No.NameSymbolIndustry
1Acasti Pharma, Inc.ACSTMajor Pharmaceuticals
2AEterna Zentaris Inc.AEZSMajor Pharmaceuticals
3Amaya Inc.AYAComputer Software: Programming, Data Processing
4Aptose Biosciences, Inc.APTOBiotechnology: Biological Products (No Diagnostic Substances)
5Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, Inc.AQXPMajor Pharmaceuticals
6Arbutus Biopharma CorporationABUSMajor Pharmaceuticals
7Aurinia Pharmaceuticals IncAUPHMajor Pharmaceuticals
8Ballard Power Systems, Inc.BLDPIndustrial Machinery/Components
9BlackBerry LimitedBBRYTelecommunications Equipment
10Burcon NutraScience CorpBURPackaged Foods
11Cardiome Pharma CorporationCRMEMajor Pharmaceuticals
12Cipher Pharmaceuticals Inc.CPHRMajor Pharmaceuticals
13Colliers International Group Inc.CIGIReal Estate
14Concordia International Corp.CXRXMajor Pharmaceuticals
15CounterPath CorporationCPAHComputer Software: Prepackaged Software
16DAVIDsTEA Inc.DTEAFood Chains
17DelMar Pharmaceuticals, Inc.DMPIMajor Pharmaceuticals
18DHX Media Ltd.DHXMMedia
19DragonWave IncDRWITelecommunications Equipment
20ESSA Pharma Inc.EPIXMajor Pharmaceuticals
21EXFO IncEXFOElectrical Products
22FirstService CorporationFSVReal Estate
23Hydrogenics CorporationHYGSMajor Chemicals
24Intellipharmaceutics International Inc.IPCIMajor Pharmaceuticals
25Leading Brands IncLBIXBeverages (Production/Distribution)
26lululemon athletica inc.LULUApparel
27MDC Partners Inc.MDCAAdvertising
28Mercer International Inc.MERCPaper
29Merus Labs International Inc.MSLIMajor Pharmaceuticals
30Methanex CorporationMEOHMajor Chemicals
31Mitel Networks CorporationMITLRadio And Television Broadcasting And Communications Equipment
32Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.MDMPrecious Metals
33Neovasc Inc.NVCNMedical/Dental Instruments
34Neptune Technologies & Bioresources IncNEPTMajor Pharmaceuticals
35Novadaq Technologies IncNVDQBiotechnology: Electromedical & Electrotherapeutic Apparatus
36Nymox Pharmaceutical CorporationNYMXBiotechnology: In Vitro & In Vivo Diagnostic Substances
37Open Text CorporationOTEXEDP Services
38Pan American Silver Corp.PAASPrecious Metals
39Points International, Ltd.PCOMBusiness Services
40ProNAi Therapeutics, Inc.DNAIMajor Pharmaceuticals
41QLT Inc.QLTIMajor Pharmaceuticals
42Sears Canada Inc.SRSCDepartment/Specialty Retail Stores
43Sierra Wireless, Inc.SWIRRadio And Television Broadcasting And Communications Equipment
44Silver Standard Resources Inc.SSRIPrecious Metals
45SMTC CorporationSMTXElectrical Products
46Sphere 3D Corp.ANYEDP Services
47Student Transportation IncSTBOther Transportation
48SunOpta, Inc.STKLFarming/Seeds/Milling
49The Descartes Systems Group Inc.DSGXComputer Software: Prepackaged Software
50Transglobe Energy CorpTGAOil & Gas Production
51Trillium Therapeutics Inc.TRILMajor Pharmaceuticals
52Tucows Inc.TCXEDP Services
53Westport Fuel Systems IncWPRTIndustrial Machinery/Components
54Wi-LAN IncWILNMulti-Sector Companies
55Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc.XENEMajor Pharmaceuticals

Many more top Canadian companies like Bank of Montreal(BMO), Encana(ECA), TD Bank (TD), Canadian Pacific(CP) trade on the NYSE. The list of Canadian stocks traded on the NYSE can be found here.

Among the foreign stocks listed in the U.S. markets, Canada tops the list with the highest number of listings. Hence US investors have the option to invest directly in many Canadian companies individually as opposed to investing in a bunch of companies via the iShares Canada ETF (EWC).

Download:  

1. The Complete list of Canadian companies listed on the NASDAQ market (in Excel)

7 Foreign Stocks Paying More Than 7% Dividends

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I ran the stock screener with the following conditions:

Market Cap: >= $1B
Dividend Yield : 7% or more

The following are some of the Foreign ADRs that met the above criteria:

1.Company:Telecom Corp of New Zealand (NZTCY)
Current Dividend Yield: 9.91%
Sector: Telecom

2.Company: Cellcom Israel Ltd. (CEL)
Current Dividend Yield: 9.69%
Sector: Telecom

3.Company:Magyar Telekom Plc (MTA)
Current Dividend Yield: 9.30%
Sector: Telecom

4.Company: Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASR)
Current Dividend Yield: 8.51%
Sector: Transportation

5.Company: YPF SA (YPF)
Current Dividend Yield: 8.21%
Sector: Oil & Gas – Integrated

6.Company: Nordic American Tanker Shipping Limited (NAT)
Current Dividend Yield: 7.53%
Sector: Water Transportation

7.Company: Ship Finance International Limited (SFL)
Current Dividend Yield: 8.82%
Sector: Water Transportation

Except Argentina-based oil company YPF, the rest of them are in the Telecom or Transportation sectors. Israel-based cell phone services provier Cellcom has over 3 million subscribers.Cellcom’s average EPS growth in the past 5 years is 17%. Magyar Telekom provides telecom services in Hungary. Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste operates 9 airports in southeastern part of Mexico including the Cozumel airport.

Singapore Leads the Top 10 Asian Cities of the Future List

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The fDi Magazine has published the Asian Cities of the Future 2009/10 list. Singapore tops the rankings followed by Tokyo and Shanghai.

Top-10-Asia-Cities

The selection methodology:

“fDi Cities of the Future shortlists are created by the independent collection of data by fDi Benchmark across 133 Asia-Pacific cities. This information was set under six categories: economic potential, human resources, cost effectiveness, quality of life, infrastructure and business friendliness. A seventh category was added – FDI promotion strategy. In this category, 24 Asia-Pacific cities submitted details about their promotion strategies and this was assessed and scored by the independent judging panel.

Cities could score up to a maximum of 10 points for each individual criteria, which were weighted by importance to give the overall scores. Where data was available only at a national rather than city level, a lower weighting was generally applied.”

Hong Kong came in at 4th and Seoul was ranked the 5th. In addition to Shanghai the two other Chinese cities included in this list are Guangzhou and Beijing.

The Latest External Debt Position of European Countries

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The credit rating agency Standard & Poors downgraded Greece’s credit rating today.Last week Fitch downgraded Greece’s rating. Both the agencies cut the credit rating due to the country’s huge debts. The public debt of Greece stands at $442B and its public deficit is about 13% of GDP.

In Debt Fears rattle Europe the Journal notes that the Euro tumbled to $1.4505 yesterday. Austria nationalized Hypo bank on ECB’ s orders and there are new fears that another Austrian lender may be in trouble as well. Hypo bank is the sixth largest bank in Austria and ran into trouble due to hidden losses from its exposure to Eastern Europe.

The European countries with huge budget deficits are Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain which are now dubbed as “PIIGS” by traders.

The External Debt of Greece stands at $552B at the end of Q2,2009 as the table shows below. The external debt rose a massive 481.87 % in 2008 due to wasteful spending by Greek politicians.Most of the money went to fund social spending and high wages paid to public workers many of whom were hired by politicians to show their gratitude for electing them.This is why Greece continues to be the poorest country in Europe and its credit rating
was downgraded.

Gross External Debt Position (in US$ millions)

[TABLE=255]

Source: The World Bank

Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain also have high external debt levels. Italy’s external debt increased by over 10% from the start of the year thru 2Q,2009.