Insider Asia Buy CSC steel

Portfolio review
After a strong outperformance for several consecutive weeks, our model portfolio underperformed the FBM KLCI slightly last week.

Our basket of 15 stocks fell by 3.1% last week, more than the FBM KLCI's 2.1% decline. Including our large cash reserves (for which no interest is imputed), the total portfolio value fell by a smaller margin of 1.9% to RM488,662.

Our model portfolio's total value and returns represent a significant achievement compared with our initial capital of just RM160,000. We started the model portfolio on March 3, 2003.

Our total profits are very substantial at RM328,662. Of this amount, RM221,386 has already been realised from earlier sales and the rest unrealised.

This represents a hefty return of 205.4% compared with our capital of RM160,000. We continue to outperform the FBM KLCI significantly, which is up by 79.9% in the same period. This was achieved even though the benchmark index is less representative of the broader market, and our portfolio holds a large amount of interest-free cash at all times for prudence reasons.

Last week, only two of our stocks rose, two were unchanged and 11 fell. The gainers were Notion VTec (up 4.3%) and Ireka Corp (up 3.8%). The major losers were those that rose substantially earlier, such as Dufu Technology (down 10.9%) and 3A Resources (down 8.6%). The two stocks had risen 15% and 26.1%, respectively, in the previous week.

Buying 20,000 shares of CSC Steel Holdings
We are buying 20,000 shares of CSC Steel Holdings at Friday's closing price of RM1.05 per share, for a total of RM21,000. Following this purchase, our portfolio will be 66% equity invested. We will still have sizeable surplus cash of about RM164,000 for future investments.

CSC Steel (formerly known as Ornasteel) is one of Malaysia's largest producers of cold rolled and galvanised steel. The company is controlled by China Steel, Taiwan's largest steel player.

CSC's latest earnings results for 2QFYDec2009, whilst still down significantly year-on-year (y-o-y), showed good improvement over the immediate preceding quarter. We believe the worst is over for the company, and CSC will be a major beneficiary of the cyclical recovery.

Note: This report is brought to you by Asia Analytica Sdn Bhd, a licensed investment adviser. Please exercise your own judgment or seek professional advice for your specific investment needs. We are not responsible for your investment decisions. Our shareholders, directors and employees may have positions in any of the stocks mentioned.