Kuala Lumpur: CIMB-Principal Asset Management Berhad (“CIMB-Principal”) today launched the CIMB Islamic Global Commodities Equity Fund (“the Fund”), a Shariah-compliant fund that provides investors broad investment opportunities in global commodities.

Speaking at the press conference today, J. Campbell Tupling, Chief Executive Officer of CIMB-Principal, said: “The Fund will provide exposure to stocks that will benefit from the strong and rising demand for natural resources and basic materials namely energy, metals, agriculture and renewable energy. The demand for these global commodities is driven by the current “supercycle”, an observable and prolonged trend which has a significant impact on businesses and the economy.”

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1) Investment Strategy, policy and holdings.

Every fund has its own investment profile. Investors should have a clear understanding of the investment strategy taken in each fund that they are considering to ensure it is consistent with their personal investment objective and risk tolerence level. Even the funds within the same category may have significat difference in the investment holdings. For example, the risk exposure in large-cap growth companies is definitely much lower than for penny stock funds.

2) Past performance.

Investors may look into the past performance trend of the fund to gauge its future performance. Do bear in mind that the past performance may not repeated in the future and we should no be overly excited to see one year of good result if the fund is only newly established. A good fund should be the one that has been consistently out-performing it peers, be it during good and bad times.

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1) Income Funds - usually are characterised as providing consistent income to investors. These Funds invests in income-producing stocks or bonds or combination of both. Bond funds, equity funds and money market funds are included into this category.

2) Growth funds - generally are more aggresive than income funds but have the possibility or earning higher returns by focusing on the objective of long-term capital appreciation rather than income producing or short - term gain. Example small caps funds, commodity funds, index funds and gold funds.

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Kuala Lumpur: CIMB-Principal Asset Management Berhad has obtained approval to increase the size of the CIMB Islamic Money Market Fund to 225 million units from 150 million units. This is the second increase for the fund following its last increase on 12 August 2008. The Shariah-compliant Fund attracted a broad base of investors as it aims to provide monthly distribution to investors. The fund is a convenient parking facility where investors can temporarily place their cash whilst re-assessing their investment strategy and deciding when they would like to actively return to the market.

Chief Executive Officer, J. Campbell Tupling stated: “Since its launch in March 2008, the Fund has been popular with investors. As a tax-friendly alternative to traditional bank deposits, the Fund seeks to provide investors with potentially higher returns without compromising accessibility to their cash, allowing investors to withdraw anytime without penalty.”

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Kuala Lumpur: CIMB-Principal Asset Management Berhad (“CIMB-Principal”) today launched the CIMB-Principal China Recovery Structured Fund - that takes advantage of China’s road to economic recovery. The Fund aims to provide investors with regular income over the tenure of the Fund and may potentially provide higher returns than the current Fixed Deposit rate.

J. Campbell Tupling, Chief Executive Officer of CIMB-Principal, stated: “Sentiments in China are slowly improving with its USD585 billion stimulus plan. Positive developments are visible in major sectors encompassing infrastructure, housing, innovation, health and education that will enable China to charter a high growth potential.  Investors will then have the opportunity to capture the market exposure through this Fund. The Fund will receive potential annual dividend payments linked to the performance of China equities as represented by the Dynamic China Index. We will be able to select and lock-in the investments at the lowest investment entry point to enhance potential gains after a 6-month observation. The Fund’s structure and low investment cost will  appeal to investors looking for a regular income stream and prefer not to take much risks given the current global economic outlook.”

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