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Trade and investment |
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Trade and investmentThe interactions between, and the rules and policies governing, international trade and foreign direct investment. One of the Singapore Issues.Similar MatchesGuaranteed investment contract (GIC)Guaranteed investment contract (GIC)A pure investment product in which a life company agrees, for a single premium, to pay at a maturity date the principal amount of a predetermined annual crediting (interest) rate over the life of the investment. Investment Valuation Model (IVM)Investment Valuation Model (IVM)The basic mathematical technique of finance that calculates the value of an investment as the present value of all future cash flows expected to be generated by the investment. ReinvestmentReinvestmentUse of investment income to buy additional securities. Many mutual fund companies and investment services offer the automatic reinvestment of dividends and capital gains distributions as an option investors. Open ended investment companyOpen ended investment company'OEICs' are hybrid investment funds that have some of the features of an investment trust and some of a unit trust.Like investment trusts, OEICs are companies that issue shares on the London Stock Exchange, and which use the money raised from shareholders to invest in other companies. Unlike investment trusts, they are open-ended which means that when demand for the shares rises the manager just issues more shares. With an investment trust, if demand exceeds supply, the response may be a rise in the share price.The price of OEIC shares is determined rather differently. More like a unit trust, in fact, with the key factor being the value of the underlying assets of the fund. But in contrast to unit trusts, there is no bid/offer spread with OEICs, so the price of the shares should be the same whether you are buying or selling.OEICs are popular on the continent but were only launched in the UK in 1997. There are around 300 up and running, with a wide range of investment objectives. You can put an OEIC into an ISA. Ethical investmentEthical investmentThe policy of selecting stocks for your portfolio partly on the grounds of the ethical or environmental code pursued by the companies in question.If you ask ten people what they think is ethical you will get ten different answers. Ethical views, by their very nature, are subjective.The major exclusions tend to be arms, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, animal testing, environmental damage and the payment of exploitative wages in developing countries. But the list could extend almost indefinitely and a complete screening by the Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS) would eliminate 60% of the FTSE 100 index.You can screen out negative factors or adopt a positive screening process and select companies with a clear environmental policy, for example.An ethical fund or portfolio of shares requires an appropriate performance benchmark. It will not reflect the market movements as a whole as it will hold a higher than average proportion of smaller companies which are much more volatile than blue chips.EIRIS maintains a database which you can use to filter an existing portfolio or to build one from scratch, using your own selection of a wide range of criteria. EIRIS: 020 7840 5700. e-mail: ethics@eiris.org website http://www.eiris.orgIn February 2000 FTSE International launched a set of stock indices called FTSE4Good. This is a tradeable and benchmark index which requires member companies to meet certain ethical standards for inclusion. Further SuggestionsAssociation of Investment Trust CompaniesReal Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Investment Risk Ethical Investment Research Service investment grade Investment agreement Capital investment Investment Investment product line (IPL) Value Line investment survey Investment opportunity set Underinvestment problem Future investment opportunities return on investment Direct investment Unit investment trust Securities and Investments Board Normal investment practice Target investment mix Net investment income per share Investment advisory service Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) Return on investment (ROI) split capital investment trust Investment company |
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