Five Foreign Closed-ends to Buy Now

Article Excerpt

SWISS HELVETIA FUND $16.02 (New York symbol SWZ; CWA Rating: Conservative) invests mainly in large-capitalization Swiss stocks. The manager of the fund is Hottinger Group, which, as Banque Hottinger, dates back to 1786. The $621.9 million fund’s top holdings are Nestle SA (food & beverages), 13.4%; Roche Holdings (pharmaceuticals) at 9.7%; Syngenta AG (agribusiness), 8.4%; Novartis AG (health care and pharmaceuticals), 6.4%; UBS AG (banking), 3.3%; BKW FMB Energie AG (Swiss power), 3.2%; ABB Ltd. (Swiss engineering), 3.2%; Actelion NV (Swiss biopharma), 5.4%; Atel Holding AG (Swiss energy), 2.8%; and Temenos Group AG (Swiss banking software), 2.7%. The main industry exposure of the stocks in the fund is as follows: Pharmaceuticals, 17.0%; Food & beverages, 14.3%; Biotechnology, 13.4%; Banks, 11.8%; Technology, 7.7%; Utility suppliers, 7.5% Chemicals, 6.8%; and Retailers, 5.6%; Swiss Helvetia Fund sells for a 14% discount from the current value of its assets. Swiss Helvetia Fund is still a buy. SINGAPORE FUND $14.98 (New York symbol SGF; CWA Rating: Aggressive) is fully invested…