White Collar | Year of the Rooster promises financial gain, but beware of market volatility

Kung hei fat choi to all readers. As the first White Collar column in the Year of the Rooster, it’s time to offer some feng shui tips to investors as part of the Lunar New Year tradition.

The Year of the Rooster is traditionally good for investment but investors need to be cautious as this year is likely to be bumpyas indicated by the bad omen during the Lunar New Year fireworks on Sunday, according to feng shui master Wong Man-chiu.

Wong said one of the elements of this Year of the Rooster is gold, which means it is good for investment. However, since this year’s rooster elements are a combination of gold and fire, the year would be volatile.

“Investors need to be cautious as fire means there would be a bumpy road ahead although they can make money amid these volatilities if they have made smart investment choices,” Wong said.

“The fireworks on the second day of the Lunar New Year also showed a bad omen as the visibility was not clear while it rained slightly. This is not a good sign,” he said.

Wong said this year would be good for the financial sector, including gold, forex trading and stocks, with the Hang Seng Index expected to trade between the 20,000 to 25,000 level.

The Year of the Monkey was a good year for the Hong Kong stock market, with the benchmark index rising 21 per cent for the year to close at 23,360 on Friday, the last trading day of the Monkey year.