commercial property investment midlands

Cominar expects more growth as earnings rise

QUEBEC 鈥?Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: CUF.UN) reported higher first-quarter profits, raised its cash distribution and said it expects more growth this year as it closes the acquisition of major office and industrial properties.

Cominar said Tuesday its first-quarter net earnings rose to $7.3 million from a year-ago $6.2 million, while revenues jumped 8.7 per cent.

The Quebec-based property owner also said its operating revenues increased to $35.4 million from $32.6 million in the three months ended March 31.

Meanwhile, Cominar paid distributions of $11.4 million to unitholders in the quarter, up 13.6 per cent over last year.

The company recently struck a deal with Halifax-based real estate company Homburg Invest Inc. (TSX: HII.A) to acquire 6.5 million square feet of office and industrial properties owned by Montreal company Alexis Nihon for $592 million

That transaction is expected to close by the end of May.

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Copper and zinc steady as US data, Peru support

LONDON (Reuters) - Copper hovered around $8,000 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange, keeping an eye on a miners' strike in Peru, while zinc found support in a potential supply disruption, analysts said on Wednesday.

By 1037 GMT copper for delivery in three months fell back from an earlier intra-day high of $8,030 and was indicated at $7,980/7,995. On Tuesday, copper closed at $7,986 after rallying 2.9 percent on supportive U.S. economic data.

Trade was seen subdued throughout the rest of the week with Shanghai closed until next Tuesday and Tokyo shut until Monday.

The market was supported by Tuesday's U.S. data, showing manufacturing expanded last month at its fastest pace in almost a year and a threat to supply from Peru, the world's third-largest producer of copper and zinc, where a nationwide mineworkers strike is in its third day.

currency trading

Rupee makes gains versus greenback in open market

KARACHI: The local currency market witnessed mixed trends during the week just ended, as rupee moved both ways but emerged a gainer in the end.

The American dollar, starting off on a positive note at the start of the week, registered losses in the ensuing days and closed at Rs60.60 on Friday. Thus, the local currency posted a gain of 10 paisa against the greenback in the open market, stated Ayaz Ali Messam, a forex analyst at Khanani & Kalia.

The local unit gave up 7 paisa versus dollar in the open market on Monday. The US dollar commenced the days trading at Rs60.60, gained ground and was changing hands at Rs60.67 at the close of market.

Rupee made a recovery of 3 paisa versus dollar on Tuesday. The American unit began the days trade at Rs60.70, shed value and was changing hands at Rs60.67 at the close.

forex online

German Stocks Climb; TUI and Deutsche Postbank Pace the Gains

Banking stocks were among the best performers in the pan- European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index today, driven by speculation Barclays Plc of the U.K. is preparing a takeover bid for ABN Amro Holding NV, the largest Dutch lender.

DaimlerChrysler AG jumped 2.36 euros, or 4.4 percent, to 56.37 euros. ``There are rumors about a near-time sale of the carmaker's Chrysler unit,'' said Florian Weber, chief executive officer of DKM Wertpapierhandelsbank AG in Dusseldorf.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. raised its recommendation on shares of Stuttgart, Germany-based DaimlerChrysler to ``neutral'' from ``sell,'' saying a sale of the Chrysler unit to private equity could be the most attractive option as the buyer would likely be interested in both the automotive and financial services assets.

futures brokerage

China Shares Regain All Losses

Blaze Fabry submits: Chinese stocks have risen since the notorious 9 percent intraday plunge in late February. As the matter of fact, the Shanghai Composite (^SSEC) is up almost 25 percent since the incident while the record breaking DJIA barely keeps space with such a sharp rally. Not surprisingly, Hong Kong is the laggard by delivering virtually zero growth. Please read our previous article, in which we argued that the Shanghai Composite Index is likely to outperform Hong Kong's Hang Seng due to fundamental reasons.

And just to further demonstrate how strong the mainland's exchanges became, consider the following developments.

"The Shanghai IPO of Bank of Communication s (3328.HK), China's fifth largest lender, attracted a record $188 billion in subscriptions.

stock market for dummies

Mutual Funds Riskier Than Stocks?

A while back on our Mutual Funds discussion board, Fool Community member Josephus2 made the provocative suggestion that mutual funds are "riskier than stocks." I think his post offers a terrific opportunity to explore some interesting issues regarding mutual funds.

The post Here's how he explained his position:

1. Stops are not available on mutual funds:

As millions of investors realized when the internet bubble popped, mutual funds can lose you money just as quickly as individual stocks. Without stop-losses in place, you are risking unlimited losses. (Or at least down to zero)

2. Options are not available on mutual funds:

Buying protective Puts can insure a stock investment against loss. This strategy is especially valuable during earnings season when good stocks are destroyed by the market for no good reason.

stock picking

Deals, Deployments, and Short News

May 08, 2007 | Eclipsys will restate earnings following completion of a voluntary review of the company's stock option grant practices and related accounting issues. The review covered stock option grants made from the company's IPO in August 1998 until the present, with particular focus upon grants made before implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July 2002. Eclipsys identified stock option grants made that had exercise prices lower than the fair market value, and concluded approximately $8.5 million in additional aggregate non-cash stock-based compensation expense should have been recognized from 1999-2006. This results in approximately $500,000 in related incremental payroll withholding taxes over the same period. 鈥淭he Company is working diligently to prepare its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, which will affect the restatements as described above." Eclipsys incurred approximately $1.0 million in costs associated with the stock option review during the first quarter of 2007, and expects to incur approximately $1.5 million to $2.0 million in the second quarter of 2007.