Our 3rd quarter performance has been extraordinary even by the usual Global Investingstandards, thanks to our good selection of countries and sectors to invest in. A big hug to Frida, Fei, Martin, Chris, Paul,and Michael for their stock-picks, country picks, or sector picks.
In summary, the best place to have invested in was Sri Lanka. We had Frida Ghitis in Colombo where she tried to figure out how to buy the local conglomerate, John Keells, as a US retail investors. She could not. But in the wake of the defeat of the Tigers, that market rose 62.8% in US$ and 60.5% in rupees. We did not get a place there.
However, Frida did tip a stock in her native land, Colombia, whose bolsa is up 31.5% in greenbacks and 23.5% in pesos, making it the 9th best performing Q3 market according to Dow Jones Global Indexes.
We missed no. 2, Latvia, but thanks to your editor we were present in Chile, the 3rd best market, with a gain of 34.1% in dollars and 18.3% in local currency. And while we missed Slovakia (it’s not hard to miss Slovakia), we also had a nice position in the 5th best market to have invested in, Poland, up 33.4% in US money and 15% in zloty.
We also have no stakes in Cyprus, ranked 6th, mainly because I have an enduring memory of an outfit called Polly Peck.
But we are very heavily invested in the 7th best performing market, Thailand, thanks to Paul Renaud, who does tend to nag, but who knows his Thai small caps. To help our mainstream readers who cannot buy in Bangkok’s Market for Alternative Investments, we also found a way into Thailand for smaller investors who cannot buy on the MAI. Paul thinks this is a mistake; but they also benefitted from the 32.2% quarterly rise in the Thai stock market in dollars (it only rose 20.1% in bahts.)
That brings me to another boast. We did not let concerns about a breakup in the euro, headlined by semi-literate financial writers, deflect us from our global course. The euro rose against the dollar in the quarter. Moreover foreign currencies from emerging markets but also countries like Britain, Finland and Norway (in Europe but not in the euro) rose even more. We do not trade currencies but we watch them.
A modest single figure gain turns into a whopper for the euro or the Australian dollar because it was tripled when converted into US money. It doubled if invested in the European outlier countries listed above, or in Israel where we are heavily overweight.
Our sector picks also did well, thanks mainly to your editor and Frida for picking copper stocks (non-ferrous was numero uno for sectors), general mining, (3rd) and specialty chemicals (7th) stocks. They are up 27 to 33% in the quarter.
A note to readers LM, WD, and PL, all currently in Europe despite the State Dept. advisory that they head for home or whatever the advisory is telling them. As paid subscribers, if you are getting a truncated version of the daily blog in your email-box while on the road, please log in to the website, www.global-investing.com to read the full blog. You will have to sign in using your email address andyour password. If you have forgotten the latter, there is a simple click that will allow you to reset it, using the email address we have on file.
More for paid subscribers about closed-end funds, drug stocks from Britain, Belgium, and Israel, bank stocks from Europe, and gold. Paid subscribers, read on or visit the website; pre-subscribers, think about what you are missing. Paid subscribers should go to the tables on our website, www.global-investing.com to find our picks for Chile, Poland, Thailand, Colombia, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Britain, etc.
