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With tongue firmly in cheek, regional broker CLSA launched its annual Feng Shui Index report early in February, offering prognostications for the Chinese Year of the Rooster. Now in its 14th year, the report, this time entitled "Rooster Oracles", is a humorous look at what the year might hold for the market in Hong Kong, one of the world's most superstitious places.
Having consulted feng shui masters and scrutinized the runes themselves, CLSA's self-styled geomantic team led by the "Wicked Sorcerer of the East" and his five "wand bearers" divined that the key elements affecting Hong Kong in the will be Fire, Gold and Earth.
With Fire the key element in the first half, say the masters, utilities, telecoms and technology plays are a good bet. Apparently Gold and Earth will dominate the second half – elements that logically denote good pickings in property, finance and manufacturing stocks.
Tempting though it might be to dismiss CLSA's ponderings, last year's predictions for the Year of the Monkey proved uncannily accurate, as the report's authors do not hesitate to point out.