Shareswatch Australia

At the moment there is so much confusion across the global markets that is makes me less reluctant to take long term positions. One day we see Chinese trade data which appears good, but there are questions about its reliability. Over in the U.S the economy appears to be improving, but what will happen when the Fed starts to wind back quantitative easing measures? Meanwhile in Japan, Abenomics is shaking up the markets and there is considerable pressure on leaders across the EU to ease up on austerity measures.

Once again it is time to dust off the crystal ball, stick a finger in the air and toss some chicken bones over my shoulder in a vain attempt to forecast what the Australian stock market will do in 2013.  Last year the ASX All Ordinaries and S&P/ASX 200 posted respectable gains, but will they do so again this year?

To pick a stock to write about this time I decided to set some high level criteria, do a search and then see what stock caught my eye. What I searched for was a stock with a market cap of over $100 million, a P/B ratio of less than 1 and a P/E ratio of less than 16. The stock that came out on the top of the list was Suncorp Group Limited.

At the start of last year I did not update my Australian stock market trends simply because I thought the market was basically going nowhere. This year however I feel it is worth looking at some interesting sectors again in an attempt to pick out some areas where investors might be able to find bargains and position themselves for the next bull market.

The current downturn in the world markets presents us with an opportunity to review or develop our investment strategy for the next few years. For some people it may mean a major overhaul such as moving from stocks to real estate, while for others it may mean just a realignment of stocks in a portfolio.