Investing in the developed world can be exciting and risky in any market. Most are focused on the U.S. markets and neglect the fact that there are other very sophisticated markets in which to invest. Australia is a good place to start. With a strong economy you can find a bevy of investments opportunities in this country.

Like the United States the range of investments opportunities in Australia include: technology, agriculture, service sectors and mining, to name a few. The financial services sector is particularly attractive, as there are liquid and solid financial markets with good leadership in the regions of the country. Finance and insurance is one of the largest sectors in the country’s economy and generating 8.1 per cent or A$81 billion of real gross value added in 2007-08. This represents a real growth when compared to years past. This is a sector whereby you have a diverse, skilled and multilingual workforce, ready to help you make sound choices.

The hedge funds in Australia are very attractive. The diversity of the funds include: event-driven and macro strategies in global and regional equities; long/short; relative-value; arbitrage; fixed income/credit; derivatives and futures. Risk is always assess very carefully by the fiscal managers of Australia’s hedge funds. This helps poise Australia to be at the forefront of the hedge fund industry. Investors need not shy away from this type of investment in this sophisticated country.

Many countries have seen retail banking take a major hit for investors; however Australia has very strong domestic banks in this sector. There are also foreign retail banks in Autstralia that have been doing quite well. A few big names in this territory would be: HSBC, ING Bank and Citigroup. Names that are well known in the states and provide assured comfort for investors. The market is also comprised of a number of non-bank financial institutions including mortgage originators, building societies, credit unions and money market corporations.

Because of the large land mass, Australia has diverse natural resources with which to invest. You can choose from solar, wind, bioenergy, biofuels and renewable energy. In the green world that we live in, investors will have a field day choosing from an immense selection of Australia’s natural resources. The government is very much in favor of renewable energy and it’s a solid investment in Australia because of that. The country even has legislation in place to ensure that twenty per cent of Australia’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020. Universities in Australian are leading the pack in finding ways to maintain natural resources and again the Australian government is very supportive of innovation in these areas.

An investor in the Australian markets may also look to the food and beverage industry for solid investment strategies. The country is of course developed and has a great selection of grains, dairy, horticulture, meats, seafood, confectionery and beverages. The food and beverage sector is also flexible in Australia, which is not the case in some countries. This allows for the demands of investors to be met quite easily. The economy of Australia relies heavily on it’s food and beverage industry and that makes it a great place to lay down an investment.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has some attractive investments that go in and out of fashion, just like the U.S. market. A couple of noteworthy earnings were had by: Computershare’s (CPU) which is a blue chip industrial and SERVCORP (SRV) a second line industrial.
The government has made investing in Australia a very good choice. They have passed legislation that will progressively reduce the withholding tax rate on specified distributions from managed funds from 30 per cent to 7.5 per cent by 2010-2011. This has made the Australian market one of the most competitive in the world. Australia’s government is also looking at opportunities to simplify Australia’s financial services regulation and to negotiate mutual recognition agreements with key international markets. This has already been done with the United States, Hong Kong and New Zealand. You can therefore see that investing in the Australian market, is a smart one indeed.

If you are interested to learn more about invest share market in Australia, take look on www.intelligentinvestor.com.au

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