Peru Stock exchange down another 5.9% today

Here's the chart at yesterday's close....

...and since this morning's opening it's knocked another 1100 points off the total to stand at 17,521, 5.87% down in the first hour and a half. Follow all the fun and frolics at the Bolsa de Valores de Lima website, linked right here.

Gotta love market panics.

UPDATE: Looks like today is rebound day. A little while after posting the above, the Peru pension funds (known as 'AFPs' and the guys that really rule the financial roost there) came in as buyers and have swept up all the cheap shares going. The market is now 2.47% down and recovering fast. 

UPDATE 2: Buying all the time, now 2.17% down and Friday's on my mind already.

Ahorita nomas

As noted yesterday, Lima Peru has a supply shortage of LNG natgas for fuel (cars, cooking etc). We now hear from Peru's Ministry of Enrgy and Mining that the problem will be solved "in a few days". Says minister Pedro Sánchez:

"We have a ship loaded with 17 million tonnes (of natgas) that can't be docked to deliver to the Zetagas and Solgas terminals in Callao (due to the current high seaswell).......this is a temporary problem and will be resolved in the next few days."

Therefore, IKN would like to remind people of observations made in a different context regarding timescales in South America many moons ago. Some terminology to note:

1) "Ahorita pues" (right now), means any time from now until past the next meal time.

2) "Dame un segundo" (give me a second), means exactly that, but it might mean a second that's embedded anywhere inside the next hour.

3) "Aqui nomas" (right here), used to tell you where the nearest bank/telephone/police station/taxi rank etc etc is, might involve a walk of between ten metres and six blocks

4) "Ya viene" (s/he's coming now), used by somebody's secretary to denote the imminent arrival of the boss. See definition of point 1) above for further details.

What could possibly go wrong? Spanish lesson complete, please enjoy your day.

Stock market investment made easy

Every once in a while this investment game, normally a headscratching pursuit of fear, greed, doubt and hindsight, suddenly becomes very very easy indeed. That's because every now and again you get to see in advance the exact day when a a market-turning event is going to happen and can plan for it accordingly.

Thanks to eagle-eyed reader MR, today we can note that the Peruvian stock market is about to reach its peak price in around two weeks' time and will then become the raging short opportunity of the year. Here's the link MR sent on and here are the first couple of paragraphs:

June 3 (Bloomberg) -- The first Peruvian Exchange Traded Fund will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange by the “middle of June,” said the chief executive officer of Global X Management Company LLC, a New York-based asset manager.

“The stock market has risen a lot, investors are bullish, and that’s helping us because we want our product to be liquid,” Bruno del Ama, the New York-based CEO of Global X, said in a phone interview. ‘We’re giving access to the Peruvian market and in the future people can go short in Peru, which is an option that doesn’t exist today.’’

Bet your watch that the Lima locals will run the bourse up and make sure all newbies into the market will make an investment they'll remember for a long time.....

Oh Noes! Canada isn't the centre of the world!

• Maybe it's because people don't like the loonie

• Maybe it's because people are fed up to the back teeth with Da Boyz

• Maybe it's because people are sick to death of wanting in to a small miner and are offered 24 on the bid and 29 on the ask by corrupt pigs in suits and ties.

• Maybe it's because of the regulatory body, the OSC, that has managed to bring just two people to rights this decade (not joking, that's the number of convictions since 2000) and obviously doesn't give a damn about the impunity under their very noses.

But whatever it is, people are voting with their feet. The junior mining companies wise enough to spread their traded stock around other markets are now feeling the benefit of this move. Case in point is one of IKN's favoured microdots, Vena Resources (VEM.to), that traded just 1,000 shares in Toronto yesterday, but 63,000 in Frankfurt this morning and over 126,000 shares on the Lima, Peru BVL exchange yesterday (with closing bell bid at 21 and the ask at 22...that's how you run an investor-friendly exchange). Another one is Candente Resources (DNT.to), doing nearly half a million shares in volume in Lima yesterday. Plenty more examples to choose from, too.

Wouldn't it be funny if one day they rang the bell on the TSE and nobody came to play?

C'mon Aussie C'mon

Kevin Rudd: Decent guy, I say

A well-deserved shout out, applause and w00t coming up for Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd right here and right now.

During the Peru APEC conference last week, Rudd slipped out the side door and went to visit three Sisters Of Mercy nuns that are helping to alleviate poverty in one of the many Lima shanty towns. You can read about his visit right here, or you can watch a one-minute news slot that played on Aussie TV by clicking this link.

While he was there, Rudd pledged $45,000 to buy a new X-ray machine for the local health centre. The Australian journalist who wrote the linked note sums it up very well.

Put $45,000 towards health or education in Australia and it would barely rate a mention. Yet here, a cheer went up when prime minister Kevin Rudd pledged to give the residents of this slum the sum for a simple X-ray machine.

As for Rudd, he had this to say for himself:

“At a time of a global financial crisis, it is easy for people to forget the poor, (But) none of us ever should forget the poor because we are all one human family. And wherever people are poor, those of us who are not poor have a responsibility. And that responsibility we see worked out in the lives of these wonderful Mercy Sisters here in Lima in Peru.”

Otto says: It may be part politics, but all the same good on you Kevin. Great to see a world leader that isn't just paying lip-service to social needs and doesn't simply expect the free market to provide. Warm applause from chez Otto, but red hot applause and deepest thanks to the nuns such as those visited by Rudd last week. It's good to be reminded that real people really care about other real people. Rudd has done us a double favour by bringing attention to the selfless givers of this world.

Finally, a big thank you to reader Alex who posted those links on this previous post. You paid it forward in style, mate.