All posts by Aditya

Bullion, Commodities, Investment

Investment of a different kind – Buy Collectible Coins when you want to invest in Bullion

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Every other day you would hear about investment advisors recommending to take an exposure in Gold or Silver using an ETF or buying phisycal metal. A lot of investors prefer buying gold or silver bars instead of putting money in an ETF as the ETF’s have management fee and usually trail the bullion price on any given day.

For those who prefer holding phisycal gold or silver buying the Collectible Bullion coins would be a good idea. Most leading mints issue .999 purity silver coins every year and varying variety of Gold coins from 22kt purity Krugerrands to 24Kt Chinese pandas.

These bullion coins are minted in limited quantities each year and cater to both the collectors and investors market. The coins are usually at a premium to the silver price for the minting charges, transportation and insurance costs.

One would ask that why should they pay a premium for a coin and not buy simple bullion bars?

Yes one could buy the bars but even the bars come at a premium to the spot silver price i.e. include the cost of mintage (shaping silver to a bar), the process of making a bar is simpler which results in a smaller charge.

The differential between the price of a Bar and a coin of similar weight is around 5% but coins come with a potential of collection value as they are minted in limited quantities for each year, with the year mark and are usually sold out even before the year ends – The 1 oz. Australian Lunar coins bearing the dragon for 2012 have already been sold out!!

Additionally the coins are equivalent to a piece of art and carry aesthetic value.

The mintage of the popular Silver bullion coins is listed below

Silver Kiwi Fern – avg 10,000 each year – 1oz. Fine Silver

 

 

 

Chinese Panda – 600,000

 

 

 

Australian Kookaburra – 300,000 2011, maximum 500,000

 

 

 

Mexican Libertad – 1,650,000

 

 

 

Canadian Maple – 3,526,052 in 2009

 

 

 

 

American Eagle – 34,662,500 in 2010

 

 

 

So think about buying these coins as investments in silver or gold – a bar minted in say year 2000 would have a small premium over silver price of the day but a coin that was minted in 2000 would always command a bigger premium than the bar.

Forex, Remittances, SGD INR

SGD breaches the Rs.39 mark, Eyeing Rs.40!!

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SGD breached the Rs.39 mark in the interbank market today. Its been a volatile past few days with swings of around 5% with a downside move from 38.4 to 37.25 (3% downside) and then back up at 39.05 (upside of 4.9%).

The key events to have taken place in the plast few days have been a depretiation of SGD to 1.30 from the highs of 1.20 against the USD before the MAS policy meeting and then swing back to 1.26. The reason for the downmove was a possibility of MAS reversing its stand on strengthening SGD. However MAS indicated that it would allows gradual appreciation of SGD against the undisclosed basket of currencies making the slope of the curve less steep.
On the other side INR depreciated to 49.2 from the 45 mark – thanks to the undecisiveness in the global markets.

An obvious question that comes to mind is that can SGD touch the Rs.40 mark – I would say quite likely. All that needs to happen for the move to happen is some more chaos in the global markets. A weakening of INR to 52 against USD and SGD to 1.30 would result in a Rs.40 mark which is a 2.5% move from here.

Alternatively SGD could move to 1.25 and INR to 50 to get the same result.

But for either scenarios to play out there has to be increased uncertainity in the global markets. I would say hold on to SGD , if you already have, for next 2 weeks – you just might get a Rs.40 conversion.

Finance, Forex, Remittances

If Singapore heads to a Technical Recession what happens to SGD INR??

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Market has been rife about Singapore heading into a technical recession in 3rd Quarter of 2011. Prime Minister has revised the overall growth outlook downwards in the National Day speech and there has been a steady decline in the Electronics Export and other trading activities.

A technical recession occurs when a economy experiences negative growth for 2 consecutive quarters. To spur the economic growth I would expect the fiscal authority to ease out the rise in Singapore dollar to make exports more competetive. Lets look at what happened in  the last technical recession of 2008.

The Singapore dollar depreciated 14% against the USD and moved from 1.35 to 1.54 in a span of 6 months!!

Now what does this mean for SGD-INR that is had a spectacular run of 9% annualised appreaciation in past 4 years?

Simply speaking the SGD INR is a cross pair between SGD-USD and USD-INR therefore a weakening of SGD against USD would result in a decline in SGD – INR. The current USD-INR rate is 46.25 and SGD-USD is at 1.203. To get a better view lets see what happened to USD INR in the same period where SGD fell against the USD

USD – INR moved to 51.5  from 42 in the same time frame which is a gain of 20%.

Scenario 1

Using the two gain numbers of 14% and 20% the USD-SGD pair should move to 1.37 from 1.20 as of today and USD-INR would touch 55.5. The cross rate usinf these calculations would come out to 40.51 for SGD – INR.

I am sure all who have SGD holdings would get all excited seeing the figure, but before getting too excited lets look at other possibilities.

Scenario 2

The INR going beyond 50 mark will spell trouble for the Indian economy specially if the Oil prices remain around the $80 mark and the Reserve bank of India would intervene to stem  the rise. So a possible future rate where the SGD weakens 14% the cross rate would come out to 36.50.

Scenario 3

Another possibility is that the SGD depreciates around 7-8% and moves to the 1.30 mark then SGD INR would be at the 38.46, assuming that INR moves to 50 against the USD which is also the current rate.

Now lets throw in the Interest Rate of 10% for Term Deposits in India – for a 6 month period from the current rate of 38.4 any money invested in India would yield 40.32 in target rate (tax free) which is close to the rates in scenario 1. On a post tax basis the amount would grow to yield 39.74.

So we have the facts lined up and no matter what the scenario is, repatriating money to India makes a lot of sense.

Finance, Remittances

Term Deposit Rates Finally breach the 10% p.a. mark

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Finally the barrier has been breached!! With the latest round of rate hikes by RBI to reign in the inflation the Term Deposit Rates or the Fixed Deposit Rate has gone past the 10% mark.

Karur Vysya Bank is taking 1 to 2 year deposits at the 10% mark – http://www.kvb.co.in/pdf/Term_Deposits/deposits_rates.pdf

And if you like the safety in state backing then State Bank of Travancore (SBT) is your best bet – taking deposits @ 9.6% for deposits as long as 10 years – http://www.statebankoftravancore.com/interests.htm. This is an extremely beneficial proposition. No other banks are taking deposits for more than 2 year time frame and offering the same rates as SBT.

So if you are looking for your money to double then “FIX” it now in a 7 year deposit

Economics, Finance, Forex, Remittances

USD INR Carry – have you thought about it?

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Forex trading and carry trade go hand in hand. A few years back it was USD against JPY, then the turn came for AUD against USD and recently people have been talking about EUR against USD on the prospects of US interests remaining low and Euro zone increasing rates to reign in inflation.

The key in all scenarios being large interest rate differentials that allow cheap borrowing in one currency and invetsing in the other. The usual trend is that the currency with the higher interest yield slowly gains against the lower interest rate currency.

AUD-USD moved from lows of 0.80 to 1.05 range gaining whopping 25%, the theme was similar for USD-JPY or EUR-USD.

The Reserve Bank of India has gradually raised interest rates to 7.5% from lows of 3.5% over past 2 years and US still is at lows of below 0.5%. USD INR on the other hand has fluctuated between 44 – 47 in the same time with the

Now given that the interest rate differential is 7% and how other currencies have gained with the carry trade there is no reason why something similar would not happen with USD – INR. Indian Rupee should be strengthening against USD in line with how other currencies have performed.

Yes INR is a currency of a developing country and uses USD to pay for the Oil that it imports but that still does not completely negate the interest rate differential.

Using a simple calculation 1USD invested in India @ Rs.45 would grow to Rs48.37 in one year and seeing the trend of USD-INR fluctuating in a close 3% range there is every reason to enter the USD-INR carry trade.

What does this mean in layman terms?

1. It makes sense to borrow in US and invest in India

2. If you are earning in USD and do not have any need to hold US dollars its beneficial to remit to India and invest

3. If you want to trade then a USD INR carry looks like a low risk trade

Finance, Remittances

Banks in India offering more than 9% p.a. on a Term Deposit

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Here is a list of banks in India that are offering more than 9% in Fixed Deposits / Term Deposits as of 30 April 2011.

RBI is due to meet on 3rd May 2011 and the consensus is that the rates will be increased by 25 basis points in RBI’s announcement which can potentially push these Term Deposit Rates upwards.

Forex, Remittances, SGD INR

SGD/INR – Has anything really changed??

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Its been almost a year since I wrote anything on SGD INR or for that matter anything else. With the rate hovering around 35 there have been quite a few requests for me to express my views and here is my opinion.

How has the Past Analysis fared?

In my last post  (10th May 2010) I had recommended that converting SGD to INR at 33+ mark as it is beneficial based on Interest Rate Parity:

  1. Interest Rate on secured deposits  in India was 8% or more making conversion attractive and
  2.  The expectation was a downward movement from then rate of 32.4 against one SGD to Rs.30 giving additional gains

The first part of analysis held good but the rate moved opposite  – towards the Rs. 35 mark.

The instant question that comes to mind is Did I lose if I converted to INR instead of holding SGD’s?

The answer is NO. As per recommendation the pair moved to 33.29 within 2 weeks of recommendation on 21 May 2010. One Dollar coverted to INR @ 33.29 for 1 year and invested @ 8% would grow to 35.95 which is less than todays interbank rate of 35.85

Whats the recommendation for upcoming months?

I am going to stick with my recommendation that converting SGD to INR is beneficial in all situations and one would not loose by repartriating money to India and parking in fixed deposits.

The Interest Rates have strenghthened to 9.5% as of today and conversion has become even more attractive. To substantiate – lets say we convert 1 SGD @ 35.85  now and invest @ 9.5%, it will grow to 39.25 in one years time. Would SGD INR touch 39.25 in one year? Unlikely!!

SGD INR rate is a cross between USD-INR and USD-SGD for which the current rate is 44.25 and 1.235 respectively. For SGD INR to fetch 39.25 in a year the USD-SGD would have to move to 1.13, assuming that there is no change to USD INR.

Consensus on the street is that USD-SGD could move up to 1.19 by October 2011. Even if INR weakens to 46 against the USD the possible rate would be  38.65 after a year which is lesser than what you get by investing in a Fixed Deposit.

How do I decide when is a good time to convert?

Exchange rates do not move linearly and with the volatility its difficult to know if its a good time to convert. Also at the request of few readers I have added the dimension of taxability of interest income @ 30%. The below graph shows the movement of SGD INR for the past 2 years.

Two important observations are:

  1. SGD INR has stayed below the Tax Adjusted Implied Rate (TAIR) line except 2 occasions
  2. Its beneficial to convert to INR whenever the actual rate moves away positively from the TAIR.

On 13 Sep 2009 the TAIR was 32.94 and Actual Rate was 33.94, Actual Rate moved back to TAIR of 33.01 on 4 Oct 2009. On 30 Jan 2011 the Actual Rate was 35.81 against the TAIR of 35.49 and the two converged to 35.53 by 6 Feb 2011.

The chart below shows the prediction based on curent exchange rate of 35.85, Interest rate of 8.5% till 30 June 2011 and 9% after that till 31 Dec 2011, tax of 30% and Start of Year Rate of 34.96:

 

The expectation is that with the Singapore elections on 7 May 2011 the SGD might appreciate quickly towards 1.19 against the USD giving a possible rate of 36.5 in next 2 weeks. If this happens you know what to do!!

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Update – 30 May 2011

The Interbank Rate moved up to 36.55 today – target achieved. There is a slight possibility of the pair flirting with 37 levels but 36.5 is a good rate to convert.

 

Forex, SGD INR

SGD INR – Volatile Times Ahead

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A quarter of the year has passed since I last wrote about SGD INR and it is satisfying to see the analysis going right – the pair dropped below 32 in the first quarter.

I did not realise that I happened to be one of the few who write about the pair and recently a lot of people have been asking my views on the pair given the new financial turmoil stirring up on the horizon.

Before going into details lets enumerate the factor variables and conflicting forces active at this point in time.

  1. The Euro precipitation due to crisis in Greece.
  2. Flight from Emerging Market investments as a risk aversion
  3. MAS’s decision to let SGD appreciate against the basket of currencies to reign in inflation
  4. China’s indication on letting Yuan strengthen
  5. Recovery in US economy and its impact on USD.

Add to it that SGD INR is a cross pair determined by movements of SGD/USD and USD/INR.

USD/INR

USD/INR dropped below the mark of 44 a few days back and has since sharply recovered. The long term mean for the pair has been the 44-45 mark with fluctuations of Rs.5 either side. The pair would continue to strengthen as the Indian economy grow and there is Foreign Direct Investment. With the greece crisis stirring up there is bound to be some profit taking in the Indian markets by FII and flight of capital outside India. This would result the pair moving towards the 46.0 mark as a knee jerk reaction.

Further more with EUR depreciating the USD – there will be added strength to USD which would indirectly work in favour of USD/INR marching upwards.

However with Yuan appreciating against the USD some of the USD strength against all currencies would be negated. 

SGD/USD

This one is a more complicated pair to analyse. The singapore economy has shown good growth in the first quarter and the pair has gradually strengthened to below 1.40 levels. The MAS has shown intent to let the SGD appreciate against a basket of currencies.

No one knows for sure what is the composition of this basket – but USD and EUR definetely are larger components. There is a posibility that Yuan might be added to this basket if not already a part of it or get a bigger weightage if its already there.

With currency appreciation a way to reign in inflation the pair might edge back to 1.35 though this movement would be gradual. On the flip side a strong currency makes exports cheaper for Singapore – both services and manufacturing and government might still want it to hover around sub 1.39 mark.

How the 2 impact SGD/INR?

Now with USD/INR looking to touch 46.0 and SGD/USD moving around 1.375 (taking mid point between 1.35 and 1.40) mark the cross rate would be 33.45 – with a lower and upper range of 32.80 ~ 34.07

I would recommend this retracement to convert SGD to INR before the long term trend of a march towards 30 resumes.

Forex, SGD INR

SGD INR – whats in store for 2010

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2009 proved to be a volatile year for a lot of currencies – specially the pairs with USD as one of the component, but the cross currency rates like SGD/INR showed relative stability. The pair has moved between 32 and 33.5 over the past 2 years.

The question a lot of you would be asking is what happens in 2010? So here is my analysis.

I expect SGD/INR to turn towards 32 to 30 range over the next 6 months to a year. A look at the chart below would show that the pair failed to stay past 34 mark even though it crossed it once. The pair has been hovering betwen the 33 – 33.5 mark for past 6 months. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SGD-USD movement

The Singapore Monetary authority has been maintaining a policy of gradual appreciation of SGD against the USD. This has been giving SGD strength against the INR as well (SGD/INR) being a cross rate.  The latest economic data shows that the Singapore GDP shrank by 6.8% in Q42009. This would force the MAS to rethink about the strong SGD approach. The most likely scenario is for SGD to move to the 1.45 – 1.50 range against the USD. traditionaly the MAS has allowed SGD to strenthen against basket of currencies with growth in SGD.

INR-USD movement

Indian economy on the other hand has been performing well and the projected growth in GDP is 6.5 to 7.5%. With improving GDP numbers and growth in economy the INR should strenthen back to its long term mean of 44 – 45 against the dollar. Using these two assumptions we can plot the projected move of INR against SGD.

Cross Rates between SGD/INR based on possible values of SGD/USD and INR/USD

The cells in dark green indicate the current range of SGD-INR depending on the rates of SGD and INR against the USD.

The cells in dark blue indicate the possible rates as the currencies re-adjust giving a range of 31.9 to 32.75 (this is the short term expectation – for next 3 to 6 months)

The cell is amber indicate the longish term range as the growth gathers steam over next 1 year.

So as always – I would recommend converting converting SGD to INR at any rate above Rs.33 for a Singapore dollar.

Finance, Forex

Go Long on USD/JPY @ 88.00

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At the time of writting USD/JPY is trading at 88.06 after having tested 86 in the past few days. There is a general concern of yen stregnthening further but I would place my bets other way round.

My recommendation is to but USD/JPY in two tranches. first one now at 88 and again if it drops around 86. There should be a quick bounce back to 90 giving around a 3 – 5 % gain.

Over the next 3 months USD/JPY should make a move towards 93-95 range.

Detailed analysis

The USD JPY chart below shows that the pair is trading near its 2 years lows. From a pure technical perspective this is a reason good enough to initiate long position.

 

From the fundamental perspective the risk of inflation has started to look very real in next few months. The central banks would have to increase interest rates in the coming months. The trend has already staretd in the Asian economies.

With Fed tightening the interest rates the carry trade between USD and JPY will be back in vogue. One can argue that Japan can increase the interest rates as well – but seeing the latest GDP and export numbers, Japan has every incentive for a weaker currency.

It is very difficult to say if the pair would return back to the 120 – 123 mark in near future but a good 10% upside from the current levels of 88 is what I am expecting.

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Update – 15 Dec 2009

The USD/JPY achieved the first target of 90.00. People can hold position for the longer term. Over the next 6 months period it would not be surprising to see USD/JPY flirt with the 98 – 101 levels.

happy trading.

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UPDATE: 4th Jan 2010

The Pair has touched 93 and the next target is now 96 and then 98. Though i must say I was not expecting the move to be this quick. I would reduce half of my position at 95 and look to buy again if it drops to 90 -91 range