Dividen Bank Rakyat 15%

Source:http://utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=2011&dt=0225&pub=Utusan_Malaysia&sec=Ekonomi&pg=ek_01.htm
KUALA LUMPUR 24 Feb. - Buat tahun ke-12, Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Bhd. (Bank Rakyat) mengumumkan pembayaran dividen sebanyak 15 peratus bagi tahun kewangan berakhir 31 Disember 2010.

Dividen itu membabitkan pembayaran sejumlah RM294.9 juta yang akan mula dibayar kepada anggotanya mulai esok.

Menteri Perdagangan Dalam Negari, Koperasi dan Kepenggunaan (KPDNKK), Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob berkata, agihan dividen yang konsisten oleh bank itu hasil keuntungan sebelum cukai dan zakat Bank Rakyat sebanyak RM1.72 bilion.
Ia merupakan kenaikan sebanyak 10.8 peratus atau RM167.1 juta berbanding RM1.55 bilion pada 2009.

Pertambahan keuntungan itu dipacu oleh pertumbuhan pembiayaan terutama pembiayaan peribadi dan pendapatan berasaskan yuran serta kenaikan deposit.

''Bank Rakyat turut merekodkan keuntungan bersih sebanyak RM1.34 bilion berbanding RM1.13 bilion pada tahun sebelumnya,'' katanya pada sidang akhbar bagi pengumuman prestasi Bank Rakyat di sini hari ini.

Sementara itu, Pengarah Urusannya, Datuk Kamaruzaman Che Mat berkata, bank itu masih mengekalkan pemberian dividen sebanyak 15 peratus meskipun keuntungan meningkat.

''Kita akan membawa keuntungan yang diperoleh untuk menjana pendapatan pada masa depan,'' tambah beliau.

Kamaruzaman berkata, untuk tahun ini, bank itu mengunjurkan peningkatan pendapatan meningkat sebanyak 10 peratus, lebih rendah berbanding tahun-tahun sebelumnya.

Beliau menyifatkan pertumbuhan 10 peratus itu adalah kadar yang selesa bagi Bank Rakyat selepas mengalami pertumbuhan besar pada 2010.

''Unjuran yang dibuat itu adalah normal, tanpa ada sebarang ekstra dan kita jangkakan prestasi masih kekal kukuh sekiranya kadar faedah stabil,'' ujarnya.

Beliau berkata, pada tahun ini Bank Rakyat berhasrat untuk menambah lapan lagi cawangan sedia ada yang berjumlah 127 buah dengan membabitkan pelaburan sebanyak RM1 juta setiap sebuah.

Bank Rakyat juga merekodkan kenaikan pendapatan kasar sebanyak 24.3 peratus kepada RM4.70 bilion manakala pendapatan bersih selepas agihan keuntungan kepada pendeposit sebanyak RM3.05 bilion berbanding RM2.61 bilion tahun sebelumnya.

Pendapatan sumber pembiaya melonjak kepada RM4.04 bilion, yang mana 92 peratus atau RM3.71 bilion disumbangkan oleh perbankan pelanggan dan bakinya sejumlah RM323.9 juta melalui perbankan komersial.

Pendapatan berasaskan yuran juga bertambah sebanyak RM92.3 juta.

Jumlah aset meningkat sebanyak 22.3 peratus atau RM11.27 bilion kepada RM61.91 bilion berbanding RM50.64 bilion pada tempoh sebelumnya.

Jumlah deposit Bank Rakyat naik kepada RM52.49 bilion bagi tahun lalu dan kedudukan kecairan kekal kukuh pada kadar 27.3 peratus berbanding 25.2 pada 2009.

Dana pemegang saham Bank Rakyat juga meningkat kepada RM5.95 juta dengan bilangan anggota seramai 758,356 orang.
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Silver Shortage!?! - Cris Sheridan - Financial Sense

If you're familiar with this site, you'd know that we've been long time advocates of precious metals. However, when clients begin to call in asking to sell their conservative holdings in order to buy as much silver as they can get their hands on, one has to wonder why the sudden alarm? Well, recently, rumors have been afloat all over the internet about a potential silver shortage, especially in 100 oz bars. Often when such sensational news stories like this go viral it's good to do a little digging and see how much truth there is to it before going into panic mode, liquidating your entire portfolio, and buying your weight in silver bars.

I spoke to Kathryn Derbes, CEO of KDerbes Precious Metals LLC, and asked her whether this was just hype or an actual cause for alarm. According to her, there weren't any current shortages in the silver market to speak of except for secondary-market specialty bars, specifically Engelhards, that haven't been manufactured since the late 1980s. Unfortunately, this small overlooked detail may have been the only source of all the news that's currently going around.

Also, Kathy related that dealers who bought 100 oz silver bars near the peak earlier this year would naturally be stuck with high-priced inventories that they'd be reluctant to sell and take a loss on—holding out, of course, until prices rise back to where they could make a profit. Thus, the apperance of a shortage may just be due to the unwillingess of dealers to sell at currently supressed prices unless they can make up for it with higher premiums.

All in all, whether or not this is the beginning stage of an actual silver shortage or just the natural course of doing business, time will tell. Fortunately, if you'd like to hear more about the current state of the silver market and what's really going on, Kathy will also be speaking on Jim's show tomorrow for a special interview regarding this very topic.



Sourcehttp://www.financialsense.com/contributors/cris-sheridan/silver-shortage

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A Simple Shake Could Set Silver Free - Dr. Jeffrey Lewis - Silver Seek

There is no more silver! Really, there isn’t any left.

There is a danger lurking in the shadows of the COMEX silver market. Prices are (generally) rising, but the supply of silver is falling, and it’s falling quickly. Why, you ask? Unfortunately, there has been confusion in the paper and physical metals market…as if silver investors hadn’t already noticed.

Silent Market in Control

With the rise in silver prices came new speculative interest from bankers, average investors, and even the next-door neighbor. The problem is very simple: the supply of silver for the investing class is imaginary—a product of the banking system and fractional reserve silver.

In order to supply investment demand, investment banks (JP Morgan and others) have been selling off paper silver in droves, hedging their bets on the futures market, and hoping that no one ever bothers to take delivery. It has become evident, especially in this most recent move toward $30, that the price of silver and the supply of silver are no longer related.

What we have now is a market where the real, physical silver is flying out of the COMEX (since few seeking to buy real silver are interested in certificates or exchange-traded funds), and the tangible stocks are replaced with paper silver.

What happens when the market realizes that the well is tapped, there is no remaining silver, and that the positions most hold are diluted to a point that they hold only a small percentage of what they believe they hold?

Future Surge in Silver Prices

It has become commonplace for analysts, investors and others to forecast higher and higher silver prices. These analysts, investors, and analysts are 99% wrong.

Most of them are playing the fool’s game, buying and selling paper silver to accumulate paper. The remainder sees opportunity for silver that brings silver prices higher, and they’re wrong as well.

Silver prices are not technically rising, but they’re becoming realistic. The current pricing structure is dependent on a supply of silver that does not exist. When this realization comes to life, silver prices will rise, but in truth, prices have already exploded.

Those trading the COMEX are paying $25-30 for the CHANCE at taking delivery of an ounce. If we put the current, real supply of silver at 10% the open interest, then prices are already $250 per ounce.

How Disconnects Happen

In a previous article, we discussed the divergence and growing crevices in the silver market. Prices from the COMEX trickle to the NYSE where the SLV ETF is traded, which then trickles back to the futures market, and then to the average investor, who through his or her own market action, sends that information down to the retail coin shop. Thus, the physical markets on the local level are selling silver based on a price that flows from a crooked market. Is it any wonder demand is high, and supply (individual investors are the only ones who can actually prove ownership) is shrinking? I think not.



Source: http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1296169564.php

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Chinese Silver Buying Just Beginning - Dr. Jeffrey Lewis - Silver Seek

Just a few decades ago, China the Giant was barely a mortal. It produced most of what it consumed, and the corporate mega-producers installed during the darkest days of Asian freedom and democracy produced all the commodities the country might need within its own borders.

One such commodity was the one we all love: silver. In fact, China produced so much that it couldn’t use all of it, nor was it interested in holding onto the metal. The country was a net exporter until four years ago, when at the height of the most recent credit bubble, net imports materialized. Today, China consumes more silver than it ever has in history.

It’s not that China isn’t still producing silver—it is, but it’s consuming and hoarding more of it. Through 2010, net imports increased some 15%, while exports fell by nearly 60%. Such a fast swap from exporter to importer means additional strain on the silver markets. From 2009 to 2010, total net imports surged three hundred percent in just one year.

Demographic Complexity

Of the more than one billion people who live in China, most live at or near poverty, while only recently a select few have been moving to middle class. While the number of people advancing through society in raw percentage terms is declining, the number of people who are achieving greater purchasing power is exploding in nominal terms.

If, for example, only 5% of the Chinese population were to rise to the ranks of “middle class,” it would be the equivalent of one out of five Americans doing the same. Such an increase is mild, to say the least, but it commands even more from an already limited silver market. Imagine what happens when many millions or even billions of newly middle-class Chinese demand cell phones, personal computers or other electronic devices. Each contains silver, and each is a hot commodity in the developing world.

Rising Middle Classes

As has been covered previously, not all of the new demand is purely consumption. As gold continues its rise, silver is slowly becoming the new “poor man’s gold,” a trend that appears not only in the developing world, but in the developed world as well. In fact, it is becoming increasingly common for jewelry to contain diluted gold to reach consumer-level price points. What are jewelers using for such dilution? Silver.

Asian societies, governments, and populations have always had respect for gold and silver that is perhaps unmatched by any other geographic region. For centuries and for many millennia, gold and silver were used exclusively for trade, as a currency and store of value. Even through modern times, gold and silver are appreciated for their beauty and significance of wealth.

It would be wise to expect that any net increase in tangible wealth in the Asian markets will be met with nearly equal shifts in the consumption or savings of precious metals. Timing is of the essence here. With both India and China expected to achieve nearly double-digit growth rates, many millions more people are soon to join the growing class of silver stackers.



Source: http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1296784269.php

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The Rarest Earth - Theodore Butler - Silverseek

Those who keep up with business news will have no doubt read about the recent developments in the category of minerals known as rare earth elements (REE’s). These are minerals that are vital to modern industrial applications, ranging from lasers, batteries, alternative energy, and superconductors to all sorts of important high-tech applications. There are 17 minerals classified as REE’s with exotic names like scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, cerium, and praseodymium. Don’t worry, this is not a technical discussion and this will probably be the only time I write about rare earth elements.



Actually, these minerals are not all that rare, in the strictest sense of the word. Many are quite abundant in the earth’s crust. What makes them rare is that they are generally not concentrated in ore bodies offering economically feasible extraction. The first rare earth mineral was discovered around 1800, in a village in Sweden named Ytterby, and several REE’s are named after that village. Up until about 1950, most rare earth production came from India and Brazil. In the 50’s, South Africa was a big producer, then California took the lead from 1960 through the 1980’s. Then, China came to be the dominant producer by far, and currently produces 97% of world production.



Due to booming world demand, production has strained to keep pace. This was recently exacerbated by China’s new export restrictions, due to falling ore reserves and environmental concerns. This sent the price of rare earth elements soaring by hundreds of percent, prompting a world-wide effort to ramp up production. However, you just don’t flip a light switch and begin new mine production. It can take years to develop a mine and begin production. In the meantime, industrial consumers must compete for available supplies by bidding up the price. This is the essence of the law of supply and demand.



Since I’m not a REE expert why am I writing about them? The answer has to do with silver. Silver shares many characteristics with the rare earth elements and there is a lot to learn from them in our analysis of silver. In fact, the purpose of this article is to make the case that silver is the rarest of all the rare earth elements.



One of the common characteristics between silver and the rare earth elements is that many REE’s are mined in conjunction with other minerals, the same as silver with its by-product mining profile. Mining for both tends to concentrate on the easiest to exploit properties first. Consequently, the remaining properties tend to be lower-grade and more expensive and difficult to develop. Both silver and REE’s have seen the emergence of China as the chief producer of each. (In the case of silver, the production reliance includes the processing of scrap material not mined in that country.) Silver production from China is nowhere near 97% of world production, as it is in the rare earth elements, but it still is significant. Environmental issues and restrictions inhibit the production of both silver and the REE’s. And with both, higher prices don’t automatically guarantee immediate new production. For instance, last year on an 80% increase in silver price, the mine production of Peru (the world’s largest miner) declined 7% or 12 million ounces. That’s a million silver ounces less per month than from a year earlier. Recently, the price of REE’s skyrocketed, due to China’s sharply curtailed exports. Should any major silver producing country sharply restrict the export of silver, the price would soar.



In most industrial applications, there is a small, but necessary amount of silver and rare earths used which is resistant to substitution. The chemical properties of silver and rare earth elements are usually unique in the specialized industrial applications which mandate their use. Generally, the consumption of silver and rare earth elements is price-inelastic, meaning sharply increasing prices of each do little to discourage consumption, due to the lack of substitutes. As was seen recently in the rare earth elements, the industrial users panicked when the supply was curtailed. This will also happen in silver, as I have long predicted.



Where do I get off with the statement that silver is the rarest earth element of them all? This point is the easiest of all to make and should prompt you to rush out to buy silver immediately. What separates silver from the REE’s is the one stark factor which is unique to only silver. You can actually buy and hold silver in its purest elemental form, unlike other rare earth elements. Try calling some dealer to invest in pure yttrium, or promethium or gadolinium. And if by some miracle you can find someone to buy from, try to imagine how you could possibly sell or determine a fair price?



The thing that separates silver from all other REE’s is that you can invest in it directly. Sure, you can buy stocks in companies that mine silver or REE’s, but only silver has the dual role of basic investment asset and industrial material. That’s what makes silver the rarest of the rare. What separates silver from any other natural resource is thousands of years of primal attraction, held by man as a form of wealth, and simultaneously a vital and strategic industrial material necessary to modern life. It’s just not practical for the average investor to buy a pound of a rare earth, a barrel of oil, or a bushel of corn for investment purposes. I suppose a case can be made about investing in platinum or palladium, both important industrial metals, but there has never been any evidence of a world-wide rush to buy these metals as there has been in silver. Buying or selling an ounce or a pound of actual silver is as easy as falling off a log. The United States Mint sells Silver Eagles by the millions of ounces every month. And while many invest in gold, it doesn’t have that investment asset and industrial material dual role unique to silver. That’s what makes silver so rare.



The amazing thing is how few of the world’s potential investors appreciate the uniqueness of silver’s rare dual role. The ease of investing in silver is taken for granted by the world. Just a few decades ago, silver was in common coinage. This explains why people have difficulty comprehending how such a formerly abundant material could be considered rare today. How many people know that world silver stockpiles are down 90% since 1940? That’s precisely what creates the investment opportunity of a lifetime – seeing something before the crowd.



It seems preposterous that a material like silver, which the common man carried in his pocket for bus fare or a newspaper could somehow transform itself into a rare material about to enter into a profound shortage. That shortage is virtually guaranteed by silver’s unique dual role. The coming rush into silver by investors seeking profits and industrial users looking to stockpile a vital manufacturing component makes a shortage almost certain. There is no way production can ramp up nearly as quickly as the combined force of investment and user demand.



For all intents and purposes, silver has been the best investment over the past decade. Those investors who studied the facts objectively and bought silver, have reaped multiples of their original investment. Silver will likely be the best investment of the next decade as well. Those who study the facts and act on them by buying silver will be generously rewarded. There is no way anyone can turn the clock back to single digit silver. Those days are long gone. But in some ways, the more exciting time lies ahead.



Ten years ago, it was difficult to convince people to buy silver. The stock market was flying high and real estate was just entering a major bull market. Crude oil was sliding towards $20/barrel and most commodities were flat. Silver was under $5, gold under $300, and the term rare earth was mostly unknown. Anyone investing in natural resources needed to have their heads examined. Even though silver was in a deficit consumption pattern, there was little interest in buying it as an investment.



Today, things are different. Natural resources are more widely appreciated, in light of burgeoning world populations and the growth in living standards. Now it is a question of which natural resource will experience the next supply and demand crunch, rather than will there be any crunches.



In the last decade, silver rose due to the cumulative effect of a 60 year deficit and the start of net investment demand. This decade, it will be investment demand driving silver higher, along with the end of the short selling manipulation. This termination appears underway. Thanks to great price performance, more investors will be drawn to silver. Thanks to the Internet, a great manipulative force that restricted the price cannot last much longer. While it may be hard to achieve the 7-fold increase in price from the extreme lows of ten years ago, the gains will still be spectacular and should come quickly. At some point the buying momentum will overwhelm those shorts trying to hold back the tide. The big shorts look tired of the manipulation and appear ready to stand aside on the next big rally.



How many neighbors and friends and relatives and fellow citizens do you know that have made a serious investment in silver? I doubt you can discover one in a hundred, or one in a thousand. Despite the impressive price gains over the past 5 or 10 years, silver is still vastly under-owned and under-appreciated. The investment flows into silver, compared to any other investment class, have been tiny. However, the amount of real silver available for investment is so small that the small investment flows to date have been sufficient to power silver higher. As more investors become aware of the silver story, the money coming into silver will only increase, propelling the price to levels once thought impossible. Importantly, the money flowing into silver appears to be for physical buying and not margin. Bubbles only occur when people are so enamored of an investment that they recklessly borrow to buy as much as possible. We’re a very long way from that in silver. That’s yet to come.



There are now $2 trillion in assets in hedge funds (the pre-financial crisis levels). This is hot money that comes into any promising investment theme in a flash. It is big money, always on the prowl for a good investment idea. To my knowledge, there has been no rush yet into silver by the hedge fund sector. Remarkably, silver recorded an 80% gain last year and a 170% gain over the past two years with no visible participation from the biggest and hungriest investors of all. There is no doubt in my mind that before the silver price saga is finished, the hedge funds will have come into silver in a big way. If silver can climb 80% and 170% without them, what can it climb with them knocking down the doors to get in? The silver story is just getting out. Please take the time to study the facts and act before the big surge.



Source:http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1297276845.php

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Buying Silver While It’s Still Relatively Cheap - SilverSeek

Richard Daughty, The Mogambo Guru

James Cook of InvestmentRarities.com reminds us, in his “Market Update” newsletter, that the silver inventory held above ground totals 1.4 billion ounces, and that annual industrial use of silver is 900 million ounces, so that a year and half’s worth of silver exists, “although a third of it is destined for industrial consumption,” which has been increasing its use of silver by 18% in 2010.

And it surely will be used in industrial consumption, because as Mr. Cook says, “it’s hard to fathom all the bullish aspects credited to silver. You have a rare metal used in so many important industrial applications as to be termed miraculous,” so much so that “the billions of ounces mined over 2,000 years are gone forever.”

In fact, I am considering raising money to launch a Discovery Channel special, which will be a revealing new documentary that blows the lid off the explosive situation in silver, beginning with how things would have been worse a long time ago if the Neanderthals had invented electrical generation and a distribution network, both silver-consuming, 100,000 years ago.

And ditto those Renaissance hotshots who everybody thinks are so hot, but couldn’t even come up with a good cell-phone, or how Thomas Edison can invent a light bulb and the phonograph, but not take the logical next step of inventing the CD and CD player, which would have produced much better sound quality than those stupid, scratchy, tinny wax cylinders of his.

Now, as interesting as all this is, it is not enough to enthrall us because we have such short attention spans, but as soon as we say, “Bah! Show me how to make money on it!” and reach for the remote control with which to change channels, our ears prick up in sudden rapt attention when he says, “The disappearance of this hoard should have sent the price to much higher levels. It didn’t.”

This seemed so odd that Theodore Butler went to “track down the reason” and, as I understand it, discovered the gigantic short futures position in silver, and all of that slimy, illegal rigging of the silver futures markets, and by extension, all the rigged markets, and all of it made possible only because the foul Federal Reserve created the excess money to finance it all! Hahahaha!

Of course, rigged markets are nothing new, and again our interest wanes, and soon we are beginning to think of pizza, and our stomachs gurgle, “BurrRRRrrRRrrRRp!”

This was unfortunate, because while we were distracted, we almost missed the whole point, which is making a lot of money without working. And on that subject, the aforementioned Theodore Butler writes that JP Morgan, apparently the biggest naked short-seller of silver futures and thus the biggest price suppressor, looks like it has decided to get out of the business of depressing the price of silver by creating and selling so much “paper silver” futures out of thin air, and has unexpectedly “covered roughly 4,000 contracts in the past month and 8,000 contracts in the last two months, the equivalent of 40 million ounces” of silver.

Familiar with the explosive results of suppressed prices that stop being suppressed, I am beside myself in Greedy Mogambo Glee (GMG) in anticipation of silver shooting to the moon, and I am humming the tune “We’re in the money! We’re in the money! We got a lot of what it takes to get along!”

Mr. Butler, who is much more professional than I, calmly and cautiously opines that “This holds profoundly bullish implications for the future of silver prices,” which may have something to do with the fact that covering a naked short position when the price of silver is rising means taking a loss, and, “In the history of the silver manipulation going back to 1983, never has the big concentrated silver short ever covered shorts on rising silver prices.”

I am always impressed with the use of the word “never,” probably because of that time when I was young and full of hormones, when I asked Debra Sue, the hottest girl in the tenth grade and who knew it, too, to go out with me, but she pretended not to hear me, but who told her friend Jessica, who told her friend Mary, who told her boyfriend Bob, who was my friend, who told me that Debra Sue said she would never – never! – go out with me because she thinks I am “icky.”

Sure enough, she never did go out with me! Or even acknowledge my existence, for that matter, except to once say to me, in the hallway outside of the chemistry lab, “Get out of my way, creep!”

That girls think I was creepy is not interesting, not surprising to anybody, but probably the most interesting fact about silver is that it is “used in tiny amounts in its multitude of applications. This makes much of its usage insensitive to price.”

If you are not sure what being “insensitive to price” means, imagine that you are the CEO of a company manufacturing Mogambo Hair-Growing Machines (MHGM) under license from Mogambo Interstellar Enterprises (MIE).

In the course of production, you use one ten-thousandth of a cent of silver per unit, meaning that you use 10 cents worth of silver a day to make a full day’s run of 100,000 units, most of which are defective because my design is bad and I insist that you use the cheapest and shoddiest of materials and labor so as to keep profit margins high enough to make the most money on the front-end before people find out what a worthless rip-off my stupid hair-growing machine really is, and people stop buying the damned things because word gets around that they don’t work.

In my defense, the business plan looked good on paper, but my lack of ethics as the price of greed is neither here nor there, and the point is that you are “insensitive to price” if the price of silver doubles to 20 cents a day. “Ho-hum,” you would say, unconcerned about such a trifle.

And you don’t care if the price triples to 30 cents a day, either, as would be evidenced by another bored “ho-hum” were you even told of this trifling news.

Ditto if the price quadruples to 40 cents a day, or quintuples to 50 cents a day.

And you don’t even care if the price of silver goes up by a thousand-fold to cost you $100 per day, even though there will plenty of people who will care if the price of silver is $29,000 an ounce!

And now with China, a third of the world’s population is going to want electrical and electronic things that all must have silver in them, insensitive to price as those things are, the upper end on the price of silver is so hard to imagine that I don’t even try, and I just buy it now while the price is still ludicrously low.

Whee! This investing stuff is easy!



Source:http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1297148400.php

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Silver to outperform gold in 2011 - Eric Sprott - PDF Print E-mail Mineweb

Eric Sprott believes that silver is likely to be the investment of the decade and could easily get to $50 per ounce by the end of the 2011
Author: Marc Davis
Posted: Tuesday , 08 Feb 2011

VANCOUVER B.C. (WWW.BNWNEWS.CA ) -

Silver promises to become the next big buzzword among investors in 2011 and beyond, according to one of the investment industry's most prescient and successful experts on precious metals.

Eric Sprott is the founder of the Toronto-based investment firm, Sprott Asset Management LP. His renowned hedge fund, Sprott Hedge Fund LP, is heavily weighted in precious metals and has generated an estimated 23% annualized return over the past decade. Other similarly oriented funds under his stewardship have also been stellar performers in recent years.

He's now so bullish on silver that he launched the $575 million Sprott Physical Silver Trust in November of last year as he believes that: "Silver will be the investment of the decade."

"I think that silver could easily get to $50 this year," he tells BNWnews.ca.

This all bodes especially well for publicly traded companies that are already mining silver, he says. Likewise for ones that are developing primary silver deposits or gold deposits with plenty of silver as a byproduct.

"If the price of silver continues to go up, silver stocks are going to perform even better," Sprott adds.

Meanwhile, Sprott says the big catalyst for surging silver prices in the coming years will be exponentially increasing investment demand, which is already beginning to overwhelm existing silver supplies. The mining industry only produces around 800 tonnes of silver per annum. This is a relatively inelastic supply, regardless of silver prices, he adds.

As household investors are becoming increasingly jittery about the debasement of the U.S. dollar and other major currencies, they are loading up in record numbers on silver bars, coins and silver-denominated exchange traded funds, Sprott says.

However, there's also a quantum shift in investment demand taking place among big players in the precious metals market, including India (which is aiming to increase its imports by about 77 million ounces per annum), and of course China.

"China's net imports of silver were 112 million ounces last year. In 2005, they were net exporters of 100 million ounces," he says.

"That's a 200 million ounce shift in an 800 million ounce annual market that seldom ever grows because production hardly ever goes up. So where's it all going to come from? We don't know."

In fact, silver promises to outshine gold over the coming years, Sprott says. "Silver is the poor man's gold. Gold has had a great run for the past 11 years. But I absolutely believe that silver will outperform gold this year. Currently, there's more investment dollars going into silver than into gold."

Such a game-changing scenario should recalibrate the gold to silver pricing ratio in silver's favor, thereby eventually restoring it to its traditional level of about 16 to 1, he says. "It's the easiest call of all time."

"Silver as a currency always traded in a ratio of around 16 to 1 compared to gold, when it was a currency in the U.S. and the U.K. The current ratio is 48 to 1. If we go back to a 16 to 1 ratio, the implied price for silver would be $85.62 (per ounce)." he adds.

"On that basis, if gold goes to $1,600, then that would value silver at $100. And we certainly think that gold is going to $1,600. In fact, I'm willing to bet that this ratio will overshoot on the downside. It might even get to 10 to one."

The only reason why silver is still trading at a 48 to 1 ratio to bullion's spot price is that its price is being "manipulated" by big banks, Sprott says. That's because they don't want precious metals to become a popular alternative currency to Fiat money (currencies that are not backed by hard assets).

"Then there's also a huge short position out there on silver," he adds.

But time is on silver's side, he says, as the sovereignty debt crisis deepens in Europe and a continued policy of qquantitative easing in the U.S. continues to undermine the value of the greenback.



Source: http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page103855?oid=120073&sn=Detail&pid=102055

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Dividen Tabung Haji 2010= 5.5%

Source:http://www.bharian.com.my/bharian/articles/BonusTabungHaji5_5peratus/Article
2011/01/28
KUALA LUMPUR: Lembaga Tabung Haji Malaysia hari ini mengumumkan pembayaran bonus 5.5 peratus bagi 2010 berjumlah RM1.33 bilion.

Pengerusinya, Tan Sri Abi Musa Asa'ari Mohamed Nor, berkata peningkatan pembayaran bonus 24 peratus itu adalah berikutan prestasi kewangan yang lebih baik Tabung Haji pada tahun lalu.
"Kadar bonus pendeposit Tabung Haji adalah kompetitif memandangkan profil pelaburan Tabung Haji adalah terhad kepada pelaburan berlandaskan Syariah
sahaja.

"Namun begitu, Tabung Haji masih berkemampuan memberikan tambahan 0.5
peratus daripada kadar bonus 2009 sebanyak 5.0 peratus," katanya semasa
mengumumkan bonus pendeposit Tabung Haji 2010.


Beliau berkata, Tabung Haji masih menawarkan pulangan yang lebih baik jika dibandingkan dengan kadar pulangan daripada akaun tetap perbankan Islam.

Sumber-sumber utama pendapatan Tabung Haji bagi 2010 adalah daripada
pelaburan ekuiti, yang telah menyumbang sebanyak 65 peratus, di mana 19 peratus
adalah pendapatan dividen dan 46 peratus adalah keuntungan urusniaga saham.

Penyumbang kedua terbesar adalah dari pelaburan sekuriti hutang terutamanya
bon Islam, yang telah menyumbang sebanyak 10 peratus.

Abi Musa berkata, keuntungan selepas zakat Tabung Haji bagi tahun 2010 juga
telah menunjukkan kadar pertumbuhan yang baik dengan perkembangan 34 peratus
berbanding 2009.

"Tabung Haji memperuntukkan pembayaran zakat perniagaan RM41 juta bagi 2010
berbanding dengan pembayaran zakat berjumlah RM39 juta pada 2009," katanya.

Beliau berkata, baki dari keuntungan 2010 selepas pembayaran bonus pendeposit, iaitu sebanyak RM164 juta akan dimasukkan ke dalam rizab Tabung Haji.

Dengan sejumlah RM153 juta yang telah dibawa ke hadapan pada tahun 2010,
jumlah rizab terkumpul Tabung Haji bagi tahun tersebut adalah sebanyak RM317
juta.

"Dalam keadaan ekonomi yang mula menunjukkan kesan-kesan pemulihan,
pengukuhan rizab perlu diberi keutamaan bagi mengelak faktor ketidaktentuan
luaran yang sentiasa akan mendatangkan kesan kepada institusi pelaburan seperti
Tabung Haji," kata Abi Musa.
Sementara itu, mengulas mengenai pembayaran bonus pendeposit Tabung Haji,
Pengarah Urusan Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd Datuk Seri Zukri Samat berkata ia
membuktikan bahawa Tabung Haji merupakan salah sebuah syarikat pelaburan
berkaitan kerajaan (GLIC) yang berjaya merangka formula pelaburan yang berkesan.

"Walau pun dalam keadaan ekonomi yang masih mencabar, Tabung Haji berjaya
mencatat pendapatan melebihi RM2 bilion bagi tahun kewangan 2010.

"Pembayaran bonus yang kompetitif setiap tahun oleh Tabung Haji menjadikannya satu organisasi yang berdaya saing," katanya. - BERNAMA

Read more...

Silver IS The New Gold - Ryan Jordan - Financial Sense

Source: http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/ryan-jordan-silver-is-the-new-gold

A Popular Delusion Called Cheap, Industrial Silver

From the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008, contrarian investors began murmuring about getting into gold and short term Treasuries. It was almost a mantra: gold and Treasuries… gold and Treasuries. Something missing? There certainly was from the perspective of the silver bugs. But the conventional wisdom, among goldbugs at least, was that silver was a mere “industrial metal” that would easily drop in a weak economy. And those who referred to silver as an “industrial metal” seemed to be backed up by the COMEX exchange in 2008, where the price of silver was basically cut in half, from twenty dollars to below ten. This takedown may have seemed justified at the time because the super rich were not loading up on bulky thousand ounce bars of silver, but smaller, more portable, easily stored amounts of gold. Silver was left out, ignored, shunned, and that seemed to be just the way the market worked.

I remember thinking in the fall of 2008 that part of this push into gold and Treasuries really was motivated by memories of what people did between 1929 and 1932. You see, the last time we had a Depression “gold and Treasuries” was the common sense move to protect assets. Silver in 1930? Silver was practically a base metal, it was in the coinage you used to buy a hot dog. Remember that at the depths of the Depression the mine supply of silver was nearly 5 TIMES the domestic US demand for both industry and coinage!! Things were so bad for silver that western Senators demanded that the U.S. prop up the silver price after it dropped to under 50 cents an ounce! Needless to say, few Americans in the last Depression thought of silver as the go-to monetary metal to protect wealth against a shattered banking system.

Fast forward 45 years and the view of silver as an abundant, cheap industrial metal would be further reinforced in the aftermath of Silver Thursday in 1980. This is because the price spike in the mid to late 1970s was not coming from industrial demand- that peaked about six years earlier, in 1974. Rather the price surge was coming from the Hunt Brothers’ Corner on the COMEX: in other words, investment demand. All that was needed was for the COMEX to change the rules on the Hunts- a kind of capital control against the longs- and the price collapsed. As the price collapsed over 60% in the 1980s (with the help of government dishoarding), and as mine supply increased, once again the perception continued that silver was some sort of easily extractable, base metal. Gold was the money of the bankers- “he who has the gold makes the rules” was the tried and true saying. Silver? A distant second as far as those trying to insure their assets were concerned.

Suffice to say, most people in the investment world have been conditioned to believe that a silver shortage is impossible, in addition to being fixated on gold as the only insurance you need for your portfolio. This is the power of recent history, of the language that is used to describe silver (its industrial), and a view that is still encouraged by some gold dealers. While I haven’t done a poll, I would bet many in the gold industry assume that a genuine silver shortage for industrial purposes is highly unlikely. This perception is largely reinforced by the major world market maker in the white metal, the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
COMEX and thin ice on the Hudson

In my mind, the COMEX is simply a warehouse and storage center for silver. A large warehouse, yes, but a warehouse that is, frankly, living off of its former glory: once the exchange legitimately had access to hundreds of millions silver ounces that could be sold, but now it likely has less than 50 million ounces for sale (this data is almost a year old), or about 1.5 billion dollars. And given the lack of government stockpiles, and how little new mine supply goes into bullion, this 50 million ounces is in many ways irreplaceable. (I will address jewelry and silverware stockpiles below). To further show how small this 50 million silver ounces number is, the COMEX has less silver for sale than is stored by a well-known gold and silver closed-end fund, the Central Fund of Canada (the COMEX also has much less silver than the SLV ETF, but I realize many question what this ETF actually has under its direct control.) So why does the COMEX have such sway in the silver market? Because the COMEX enables big players to buy on paper, with big leverage- I guess what they call “liquidity” in the world of finance. On any given day the COMEX trades millions and millions of these paper “ounces” of silver. The vast majority of these contracts are not settled in physical silver- it is impossible to do so! But the volume of money passing through and over this silver warehouse is what makes the COMEX the alpha dog, the leader of the pack in terms of setting the world price in silver.

But in this era of uncertainty regarding our financial system, the paper leveraged nature of the COMEX leads many to question its viability as the world market maker in silver. Because at the end of the day, the paper game played on the COMEX demonstrates how floating exchange rates allow for the irresponsible mispricing of important strategic and industrial assets like silver (but the list could be included to other commodities.) Worse, there is a motive for banks in league with the Federal Reserve to use as many of their Federal Reserve Notes to play the short side of the paper game, even though these banks know full well they could not deliver on what they are selling short. But banks likely play this game to maintain the image that the fiat dollar is doing just fine: large price moves higher in gold and silver are a warning light regarding the end of the fiat dollar. However, the lower the silver price is kept by large banks and their naked short positions, the more silver is consumed in spite of a tightening physical market. The silver paper market, in other words, is completely and totally disconnected from the realities of supply and demand on the ground.

The casino-like quality of this paper market is related to the fallacy that you can just print more and more money and not have incredible shortages erupt in goods that cannot be printed. We are already seeing shortages for real things in places like Tunisia- we all have to wonder how long before these kinds of shortages come to the western world. But the FED is convinced that it can solve the employment problem with cheap money, and will continue to pretend the looming inflation problem does not exist. And the FED is not only showing disregard for poor people whose budgets are easily consumed by food increases. The callous attitude of the Federal Reserve System also extends toward the holders of capital- epitomized with the zero percent interest rate policy. This attitude is an expression of the fallacy that the holders of capital will always be relied upon to invest capital into risk taking ventures such as mines or other productive enterprises. This is a very dangerous, stupid assumption. What if those holders of capital feel abused by the banking elite and government authorities and refuse to take the risks necessary to provide the resources needed for the American economic model of growth at all costs? And what if those holders of capital decide to put their money into something unprintable- like silver? So, in my mind, the COMEX is one more, very important symbol of an unsustainable economic and monetary model. The implications of the COMEX running out of silver, or trying to institute capital controls when it fears a run on silver, could not be more bullish for the holders of the white metal.

For now, though, the COMEX price is generally honored by dealers. Yes, there are premiums for small amounts of silver, but there are not yet significant premiums for larger bars of silver. There are hundreds of thousands of major bullion dealers who aren’t big enough to rock the boat of COMEX pricing- at least not yet. But what happens if the silver inventory at the COMEX keeps dropping- irreplaceable inventory as far as I’m concerned- and all the leveraged paper players try to convert their paper into silver. If there are eighty more paper contracts settled in paper for every one settled in bullion, you get the idea what will happen when the other 79 try to rush into a silver market where the silver does not exist. In other words, the COMEX is susceptible to a bank run.

This is an important point: the silver market does not need any new “investors” for the price to go higher- it simply requires people holding paper silver (which is plentiful) to try to convert it into physical (which is scarce).

Although the physical scramble could occur by the populace who do not deal with the COMEX, at this point it is much more likely to be initiated at an institution such as the COMEX. When capital controls are put into place at the exchange to end the delivery of silver bullion to investors, there will be hundreds of billions of dollars trying to land on a pile of silver outside the exchange in the single billions of dollars. At some point, some of the estimated 20 billion ounces of jewelry and silverware may come into the market, but likely only at much higher prices. Think about it- how much does women’s silver jewelry cost when compared to its scrap value? In other words, silver prices will have to launch significantly higher before this jewelry comes out of hiding. And then, I predict, the Silver Users Association will make sure that it gets first dibs on what is being scrapped, leaving investors in the cold. Quite possibly, silver in coin and bullion will never be as plentiful as gold coin and bullion, even though some people still claim that there is some large overhang of silver which could make the amount of silver bullion equal to that of gold.
The trend is your friend

As a final point of fact, the above ground stockpile of silver- around 22 to 25 billion ounces and mostly jewelry and silverware at this point- has not changed much over the last half century. (Mind you, at the moment less than 1 billion are silver coins or bullion.) However, the above ground stockpile of gold has grown substantially from under 1 billion to nearly 7 billion ounces over the same time frame. Beside the fact that the above ground ratio of all silver to gold is less than 4 to 1 (and not 50: 1 as currently expressed in the price), the trend in physical gold and silver is clearly toward parity, or at least something close to it. And yet here we are with silver having recently “corrected” in price to a mere $27.50 an ounce, while gold is $1350. Silver- which could one day get awfully close to the price of gold- remains very much a screaming buy.

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When Will Silver Prices Explode?-Jason Hommel-SilverSeek

Posted 30 August, 2010
(ANYTIME!)
Silver Stock Report

Many analysts and investors try to guess when silver prices will explode. They make these guesses based on the charts, or even by the fundamentals like I do. I pointed out the fundamental supply and demand numbers in my last article, "1% of 1%".

The Tiny Silver Market attracts 1% of 1%, or $1 out of every $10,000 in the US Banking system, each year.

By the time 1% of paper money tries to buy silver in one year, there will be 100 times as much investor buying of silver as today, which will be about $180 billion trying to buy only 750 million ounces of annual world production, which implies a silver price of about $240/oz., or perhaps higher.

1% of 1% August 23rd, 2010 (The Silver Market is tiny, tiny, tiny!)

That article led Al Korelin and Steve Carr to call me up for a 13-minute radio interview on the Korelin Economics Report. See here:

http://kereport.com/weekendshow/weekendbt-aug2810-seg1.html

Please listen to that radio segment; it's very powerful information.

The silver fundamentals are so great, and the silver market is so small, that at any time, the silver price can double, up from about $18-19/oz. now, to about $40/oz.

How can silver prices double at any time?

Because there are over 1000 individual billionaires in the world, and each one of them could cause silver prices to double overnight by attempting to exchange over valued assets for undervalued silver. How can any analyst predict when any one of 1000 people may decide to act? And it is impossible, IMPOSSIBLE, to tell in advance, when a single buyer will try to buy silver in such quantities and urgency that it would move up the price by up to 100% over a few days. Unless you know such a billionaire personally, and unless he or she tells you, in advance, of his trading moves, which wealthy people don't usually do.

For example: The current silver market is dominated by industrial demand, with very little investor demand, for a total of about $10 billion of new silver per year. Most of industrial demand is price inflexible, since the amount of silver used is a very little cost compared to the final item. We might assume that some, but not all, of current demand might wait or delay purchases due to higher prices, but also, higher silver prices might attract additional investor demand, as investors these days are more attracted to rising price trends than they are to excellent fundamental reasons to buy. Also, higher prices may cause panic stockpiling by other industrial users who might wish to lock in lower prices, or secure enough supply in a tight market. Therefore, an additional $1 billion of new buying, over the course of a year, could cause the silver price to move up by much more than 10%. But if a billion dollars tried to buy silver within a month's time, then that impact, if looked at as if it were to be annualized, that would look like another $12 billion was trying to enter the market, and thus, the silver price might move up by more than 100% in a month!

Here's another way to look at what $1 billion of silver buying within a month would do to silver. Currently, we have about $1.9 billion per year of investment demand buying 100 million oz. of silver, which works out to $158 million in a month. $1 billion buying silver within a month would be 6.3 times more than the current silver investment demand.

Therefore, it is impossible to know exactly when silver prices will explode. And there's really no need, is there? All we really need to know, is that silver prices are highly explosive, which is great if you own silver!

Well, I suppose there is another way to tell if, or when, silver prices will explode. If you gave me the personal email addresses of all 1000 billionaires in the world, and if I sent them all my article from August 23rd, you could easily bet that the silver price would be likely to double within a week. But it's not likely that I'll get that email list.

Oddly, the silver price has gained about $1/oz. since my last article on the 23rd, which is when this latest rally began.

1% of 1% August 23rd, 2010

http://tinyurl.com/252xx5o

Bloomberg wrote: " Silver has outperformed the yellow metal since Aug. 23, gaining 6 percent compared with gold's 1.4 percent gain, as investors bought the white metal because of its relative cheapness to gold."

Really wealthy people are kind of funny. For them, it's often about status, or power, not wealth anymore. Well then, they should know that if they are in the top 1000 of wealthy families, they have an opportunity to enter the top 100, if only they buy silver. And if they are in the top 100, then they can likely enter the top 10, if only they buy silver. And if they are in the top ten, well, they might just be able to buy a few nations, if only they buy silver, before other billionaires do.

They should know that buying silver first is not like a race, it IS a race!

But there are many thousands of funds, retirement funds, each managing billions, and any one of them could decide to buy silver in an attempt to gain increased performance for their portfolios, too!.

The point is that reaching people, and teaching people the fundamentals of silver is potentially a very productive thing for silver prices.

In case this email is actually forwarded to any of the world's billionaires, I suggest that they read my prior article specifically for them:

How to Get Into Silver, for Billionaires February 27, 2008

=====

So, how else can you reach people? The Silver Circle Movie!

Please Support the Silver Circle Movie! They need to raise, within the next week, $4000 to cast actors.

Here's their online pitch, it's very funny:

Silver Circle - Animated Dystopian Film Needs Funding for Talent
http://kck.st/cgDktF

=====

I have a few ironic insights about people and wisdom.

To be wise, you have to have a very long attention span.

To market wisdom, you have to express it as if people have very short attention spans. Headlines, urls, titles, names and signs must catch a person's attention in less than 1 second. And you have to have a 5 second pitch, a 10 second pitch, and a 20 sec., 1 min pitch, 5 min pitch, 10 min. speech, 30 min speech, 1 hour speech, etc. Even wise people will ignore many things, so you have to work hard to catch people's attention quickly!

To want to teach wisdom, you have to be unselfish; but you have to put it forth in such a way that wisdom is attractive to people who are totally selfish. Even wise people recognize that people who act in their self interest create a rational free market economy.

To become wise, you have to constantly think, discern, and learn. But most people rarely think deeply, they mostly just remember slogans. Even college kids earn A's merely by regurgitating the definitions of the theories of the day; no real thinking is required. Ok, then, here it is:

SILVER PRICES WILL EXPLODE!

SILVER PRICES WILL GO UP!

SILVER INVESTORS WILL MAKE FORTUNES!

SILVER IS LIKELY TO INCREASE BY A FACTOR OF 100 TIMES GREATER!

SILVER PRICES CAN GO UP BY 10,000%!

The Federal Reserve seems to understand these rules, and makes expert use of them.

The Fed is a master marketer. They own the media, or their partners do, and they give a constant bombardment of headlines favorable to the dollar and the Fed.

The Fed appeals to people's greed, they even actively bribe judges to win court cases.

Payoffs for Judges, Prosecutors Is Legal by Statute
http://americanfreepress.net/html/payoffs_for_judges_232.html

When judges are bribed, it becomes impossible for them to present rational arguments for their decisions. That happened to me, I saw it in action in 2003-2004. http://bibleprophesy.org/squaw.htm

The Federal Reserve markets through propaganda and slogans; no real analysis is ever presented for a strong dollar. For over ten years, the Fed and their media whores have warned of the risks of deflation--and yet, all the while, M3 has increased from $5 trillion to $15 trillion, and silver has increased from $5 to over $15/oz., which is 200% inflation over a decade, but all we hear of is the constant danger of deflation.

The Fed LIES!

Meanwhile, the banks who were bailed out last year are still keeping a huge reserve of cash on deposit with the Fed, so it's not counted in M3 stats, that are no longer being published by the Fed, so there is a double secret plan to hide the inflation, and furthermore, the Federal Budget gap, or deficit, is $1.5 trillion, which must be printed, which is 10% annual inflation right there!

The Fed relies on the fact that people don't actively think nor remember the Fed's deceptive cry about deflation, nor do people remember the facts of the actual horrendous inflation over the last decade, or even in the last year.

So just remember one thing.

Silver prices can double overnight, at anytime, and it's totally impossible to predict when it will happen. And yet, at some unexpected day out of the blue, silver prices will likely double, and nobody will understand why, except me, and you.

Because we know that the silver market is just way too small, and prices just way too low.
=====

I strongly advise you to take possession of real gold and silver, at anywhere near today's price, while you still can. The fundamentals indicate rising prices for decades to come.

Source: http://news.silverseek.com/GoldIsMoney/1283182340.php

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In India, silver tops the charts - Shivom Seth - Mineweb

Though the price of silver has scaled to dizzying heights, investment demand in India is at the helm of the price fever. As the country celebrates the Ganesh festival, silver ornaments and coins fly off the rack.

Author: Shivom Seth

Posted: Monday , 13 Sep 2010

MUMBAI - -

It could not have come at a better time. Silver prices jumped by 0.30% in the futures market in Mumbai on September 13, as speculators enlarged their positions given the pick up in demand in the spot market. Silver prices have been steadily gaining over the past week on fresh demand from jewellery and gift manufacturers.

Over the past five weeks, the metal has outpaced gold, logging in a gain of around 14%. According to analysts, the metal's spurt above $20 is the first ever since early 2008.

The white metal continued its north-bound journey for the seventh straight trading day, following sustained industrial demand. The ensuing Ganesh festival has also helped buoy sales,'' said Lalubhai Zavereemal Toda, a Mumbai-based silver trader and diamond exporter.

Though the metal is generally used in the photo and electronic industries and also in jewellery making, it has a specific significance in India during festival times. The second-half of the year is when the festive season starts to roll, and many Indians buy gold and silver coins, utensils and gift items to usher in the festivities. Though the price rise in the case of gold has been phenomenal during the last couple of months, most traders insist that it has not dampened sales. ``Demand for gold and silver coins and ornaments perks in the second-half of the year,'' said Shailesh Siddique, an analyst with ABN AMRO, a banking institution. ``The surge in the price of precious metals including gold and silver reflects the buoyancy of the Indian economy. Gross domestic product (GDP) for the current fiscal is expected to touch 9%,'' he added.

He went on to say that a lot of interest has been seen in silver in recent days after gold started rising; ``Silver was cheaper. Its price has gone up faster. The gold to silver price ratio is currently pegged at 65.06; it was 67 just two months ago. Prices in the international market are also moving up on safe-haven buying and weak macro economic data.''

Agency newswires reported that silver has outperformed the yellow metal since August 23, gaining 6% as compared with gold's 1.4% gain, as investors bought the white metal due to its relative cheapness.

In Mumbai, demand for silver has improved substantially as jewellers and manufacturers of gift articles have turned active buyers to meet the requirement for the on-going Ganesh festival, when India's favourite elephant-headed God graces most Indian homes for around 10 days. This year, the remover of obstacles, as the benign deity is called, will stay an additional two-days.

"I am surprised at the latent demand for silver and gold, both in the form of jewellery and as an investment,'' said Ashoke Moitra, an investment banker. ``There is enormous liquidity despite inflation, which is fuelling demand for cars and jewellery. This trend will continue all through the year and with the Indian marriage season coming up as well, we anticipate demand for the precious metals to remain robust throughout 2010,'' he added.

The wedding season in India, the world's largest gold consumer, runs from November to December and from late March through early May. Market analysts said a slight dip in precious metals during the monsoon, encouraged stockists and jewellery fabricators to enlarge their positions to accommodate the festival season demand.

Source: http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page32?oid=111161&sn=Detail

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Investors slowly warming to silver's potential - David Levenstein - Mineweb

The metal has managed to hold above the $18.50 level which was previously a key resistance level and continues to flirt with $20 an ounce

Author: David Levenstein

Posted: Thursday , 09 Sep 2010

JOHANNESBURG -

The price of silver has been extremely robust as it flirts with the $20/oz level. The price is now up more than 14% since its previous low of $17.50/oz and one important thing to note is that it has managed to hold above the former key resistance level of $18.50/oz.

As there have not been any major changes regarding the fundamentals on silver that would account for this move, I believe that investors are slowly realizing the potential in silver and that the grey metal is much undervalued and supplies are getting tighter. What was of particular interest last week was that the price of silver moved higher despite the fact that the large bullion banks increased their net short position obviously in an attempt to suppress the price once again. And, on more than one occasion, when the price of gold slipped marginally, silver prices continued their upward move.

While industrial demand for silver is increasing, so is monetary demand. More and more investors are turning to silver as a way to protect the purchasing power of their savings. Like gold, silver has been proven to be an effective way of protecting your wealth. However, unlike gold, silver is hardly ever quoted in the main stream media. But, as the prices begin to move upwards, no doubt it will be noticed and more and more investors will take advantage of the current low prices. Silver bullion bars and silver bullion coins such as the silver Eagles manufactured by the U.S. Mint have become hugely popular with investors. So too are silver rounds which are practically the same as the silver coins except they are not classified as legal tender.

In addition, new investment vehicles such as silver exchange traded funds (ETFs) have taken several million ounces of silver out of the marketplace. While there is a lot of controversy going on at the moment about the actual physical holdings of some of these silver ETF's there is no doubt that they are having some effect on the supply and demand dynamics.

While demand for silver is increasing around the world, supplies are actually declining. Traditionally, there have only been three sources for silver. These include the output from mining companies, the sales from recycling, and government sales. In recent years though, sales from government stockpiles have shrunk to almost nothing as governments have depleted their stockpiles, and there has not been any major new silver discoveries in years.

As the current global currency crisis continues, investors will diversify into hard assets including precious metals such as gold and silver. But, silver has probably the highest potential for profit out of all the precious metals. It is for this reason that the metal should become part of your investment portfolio.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
The action in silver prices has been very positive. The price has punched through the key resistance level of $18.50/oz and has traded upwards to test the $20/oz level. This is the highest the price has been May of this year. While a short-term correction is possible, I believe that silver prices will remain in a positive bias.

About the author

David Levenstein is a leading expert on investing in precious metals .He brings over 30 years experience in futures, equities, forex and bullion.

Source: http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page103855?oid=111036&sn=Detail&pid=32

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Silver Investors Get a Gold Star-LYNEKA LITTLE-abc News/Money

Is Silver the New Gold? The Rise of Precious Metals

By LYNEKA LITTLE

Sept. 28, 2010

With stocks in the dumps and government deficits spiraling, Americans are increasingly turning their attention to precious metals like silver, which has doubled in price since the recession hit in 2008.

Silver hit a 30-year high of $21.47 an ounce Monday, up from under $9 when the financial crisis began, rising 35 percent so far this year.

The high price of gold -- the metal has also more than doubled in price over the past two years -- has sent investors scrambling for cheaper silver as a way to protect their assets. Silver has gained 21 percent in price versus gold this year.


"Some people are worried about the currency debasement and have done some research about the fundamentals of silver and fundamentals of gold and silver looks like a better deal," says David Morgan of The Morgan Report.

Silver's rise can also be traced to its industrial uses in everything from jewelry, mobile phone components to batteries.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/gold-now-silver-long-silver-price-surge/story?id=11739548

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Silver heading for supply deficit – Morgan-Liezel Hill-MiningWeekly

By: Liezel Hill

28th September 2010

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) - Silver is likely heading for a supply deficit in the next decade or so, as demand growth gets a boost from new industrial uses for the metal, as well as increased investor interest, analyst and founder of Silver-Investor.com David Morgan said this weekend.

"I am more bullish over the next ten years than I was over the previous ten years [for silver]," he said in a Sunday presentation at the Cambridge House resource investment conference in Toronto.

Silver prices have touched 30-year highs in recent weeks, and reached $21,60/oz on Monday.

The market for the metal was in a supply deficit from the 1990s until about 2006, but moved into a surplus in the last few years. The VM Group/Fortis Bank report on the metal published in June forecast a 7 200 t surplus for 2010.

Even just based on the outlook for increased industrial demand in ten years' time, that would work out to a deficit, Morgan said.

"I am suggesting highly that we are going to go into a deficit again," he stated.

"If you look at the industrial side only you are going to be in a deficit, and if you add any kind of industrial demand on top of that it gets even more bullish."

Morgan commented that the precious metal is being used more and more in food and water purification, solar technology applications, nanotechnology, textile production, radio frequency identification, medical uses and many others.

Silver and gold prices generally track in the same direction - the historical correlation is about 85% - but silver is more volatile, moving further up and down on a percentage basis than gold.

Silver is also a much smaller market than gold, Morgan commented.

"Remember, a four dollar price move in gold would buy the entire silver market."

Much of the world's silver supply is produced as a byproduct from base-metal and other mines.

Source: http://www.miningweekly.com/article/silver-heading-for-supply-deficit-morgan-2010-09-28

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How China Will Drive Silver to $250-Peter Krauth-Money Morning

source:http://www.moneymorning.com/publishersseries/Silver_PSSIL02101.pdf
By Peter Krauth, Contributing Editor, Money Morning

Once upon a time, the Chinese government forbade ownership of all precious metals.

But now, the ban has been lifted. In fact, China just introduced silver bars for investment. And now, state-run China Central Television (CCTV) is running a campaign encouraging the population to invest in silver.

That means there are over a billion potential new silver investors hitting the market. This is especially significant when you consider the average savings rate in China is 30 to

40%.

But the flood of new Chinese silver investors isn't the only factor driving up silver prices. The increased use of silver in everything from solar cell technology to medicine is pushing up prices as well.

Read on to discover exactly why silver will make savvy investors rich in the year ahead... and find out the one stock to buy now to take your portfolio to new highs.

Chinese Demand for Silver

Take a second to think how much of an impact this will have on the silver market - the sheer amount of people, and at such a high rate of savings.

Then you factor in Chinese demand for things silver is need to make - cell phones, computer, batteries, silverware and jewelry. China's silver consumption already accounts for 70% of the global total of industrial use, and its middle class isn't even close to reaching its spending potential.

What's more, those aren't the only reasons analysts are predicting silver prices can reach as high as $100 this year and $250 by 2015.

This free report outlines all the reasons silver is going to continue its ride to another record. It also gives a handful of ways to invest in silver.

Demoting the Silver-Gold Adage

China's impact on the silver market isn't the only thing catching the attention of silver analysts.

The silver-gold ratio tells a compelling story about the price of silver. Put simply, the ratio means how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold. Historically, that ratio has been about 15-to-1. Right now, that ratio is hovering around 59-to-1.

For silver to ‘correct' by returning to its long term silver/gold ratio of about 15, gold at $1,000 means silver should be priced at $66 already.

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who believes that 59-to-1 will hold up much longer because it basically means silver is cheap compared to gold, which opens the door for investors to come in at a good price, such as China. All of China.

More Pressure on Silver Prices

As the global economy expands its size and reach... as technology advances... and as more ways to buy silver becomes available... as silver supplies have dwindled... more factors began affecting the price of silver more exclusively - for better or worse. Some are:

• Silver's Industrial Uses: For decades, silver has been more than a collector's item. It has dozens of uses outside the storage vault. It's used to make currency, jewelry and silverware.

Silver is used to produce highly reflective, architectural mirrors. It's heavily used in the medical field as an antimicrobial - a killer of some bacteria, algae, fungi and viruses. In the labs, silver is used in photographic films and as a catalyst in chemical reactions. And more applications are arriving soon, including using silver in photovoltaic cells in solar-power technology and in rechargeable silver-zinc batteries. In fact, silver's use for industry has gone from 35% of total annual production ten years ago to more than 50% today. One source claims that figure is actually 90%.

• Silver Supply/Demand: Supplies of available silver have dropped by 86% in the past two years. Commodities research firm CPM Group says the current amount of above ground refined silver has fallen from 2.2 billion ounces in 1990 to less than 1 billion today. At the same time that supply is falling, demand is rising... especially industrial demand. The pressure on silver prices will get even stronger as individual investment demand (including the whole Chinese market) goes up.

• Silver Market Size: Silver is a less-active and lower-volume market than gold, which means that purchases even by individual investors can make an impact on silver prices. Better said,

100 silvers buyers purchasing the same amount as 100 gold buyers will have a bigger impact on the market. Think how much prices can spike when millions of Chinese investors flood the market with silver purchases. Now, combine that with the global return of industrial silver demand.

Silver Price Projections

Money Morning's Martin Hutchinson believes silver and gold will continue climbing into 2011 and beyond. If enough investor momentum gains - and if China's push for individual silver investment intensifies - he believes silver could peak past $100 either this year or next.

But, that's just the beginning. Silver could top out at $250/oz. in the next five years as global mine production crawls in the face of increasing consumer and industrial demand. That's an increase of over 1,150%.

Bear in mind that silver prices have been moving faster than gold. So those who want to invest in silver better pull the trigger soon, or watch silver's price explode from the sidelines.

The Best Way to Invest in Silver

Like investing in gold, the most popular ways to invest in silver is ETFs, mining company shares and bullion/coins.

As far as ETFs go, silver investors might want to check out ETFS Silver Trust (NYSE: SIVR). The ETF can be bought and sold just like any stock, and seeks to reflect the value and performance of the price of silver bullion, minus the Trust's operating expenses. The ETF is backed by physical silver bullion held by HSBC in London.

But, to really leverage the price of silver, take a look at Vancouver-based Silver Wheaton Corp.

(NYSE: SLW).

Silver Wheaton which is perhaps the heaviest hitter in the global silver-mining business. It gets its silver from all corners of the world, from the Aurcana mine in Mexico to the Zinkgruvan mine in Sweden. As silver's price shot up 56% in 2009, Silver Wheaton's stock more than doubled that with a 124% gain. And in that span, the company acquired competitor Silverstone Resources Corp. and entered into several long-term agreements with Goldcorp and other major miners in which Silver Wheaton will acquire silver mined by them. Look for Silver Wheaton to skyrocket as silver prices rise.

Editor's Note: Silver isn't the only commodity in high demand in China. Demand for a substance used in everything from medicines to nuclear bombs already tops production by 16 times... This supply/demand mismatch has doubled the price of this substance in just one year. But the boom has barely even started.

Discover the best way to play it (it's not by buying the substance itself) before demand skyrockets even more.

Read more...