It’s Chinese New Year, a time to honour deities and ancestors.

The Chinese zodiac has switched from Year of the Rat to the Year of the Ox.

Feng shui is actually more complicated than just the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac that you might be familiar with. There are also five elements (metal, water, wood, fire, and earth) and the balance of ying/yang to consider.

So, to be precise, we’re now in a ying metal ox year.

“This year, no explosive or catastrophic events will occur, so it is a favourable year for economic recovery or consolidation, a year of long-term investments (especially for creating a reserve stock for the coming unproductive years),” says the Chinese Zodiac.

Sounds about right.

“Ox” is actually a translation of the Chinese character .

For those keeping score – another translation would be cow, bull or water buffalo.

But before you get too enthusiastic, the bull doesn’t have the same connotations in Chinese culture as it does on Wall Street. The ox is “grounded, loyal, gentle and trustworthy,” Hong Kong-based Chinese and Western astrologer Jupiter Lai told the Japan Times.

‘Pessimism, cynicism and despair’

Famed feng shui consultant Raymond Lo actually gave a forecast for the Chinese New Year in November that was quite bearish.

“The fearful energy of the Water Element cycle is going to take over and prevail in the coming year. Pessimism, cynicism, and despair will set in and contribute to economic decline. Any activities will also lead to longer-term setbacks, and more economic crises will arise. Because Fire is lost until 2025, we can expect a longer bearish market ahead,” he wrote.

But industries belonging to a fire element can expect prosperity, given that fire conquers metal, and “metal is fire’s money”.

Those fire industries include energy, power generation, restaurants and entertainment, he wrote.

“Next are industries belonging to the Earth Element because Earth conquers Water and produces Metal. Metal means activity and productivity, and Water inside the Ox also means money, and Water is Earth’s money,” Lo predicts.

“Earth industries include real estate, land development, mining, insurance, computer software, and technology.”

Beware of coups, assassinations and terrorism

Lo also warned that “yin metal” is often compared to a “cold, brutal weapon” — and as such, is often associated with “terrorist attacks, assassinations, and coups d’etat”.

For the Chinese New Year: “As the world economy continues to decline, the atmosphere of distrust will lead to more social unrest, political struggles, international tensions, assassinations, subversions, and coups,” he wrote in November.

“People may choose to resort to violence in achieving their ideology and bring about more protests, demonstrations, and anti-government sentiments.”

Sounds bleak – but Lo does predict scientific advances including space exploration.

Among those taking Lo’s analysis seriously is Michele “Mish” Schneider, a former floor trader on several New York commodity exchanges and director of trading research and education and MarketGauge.com.

She wrote on CMCMarkets that she has checked the feng shui master’s predictions each year for the past six years to see how they play out for the economy.

“His track record is not perfect,” she wrote. “However, it is quite good and if nothing else, he gives metaphor lovers wonderful fodder.”

Another feng shi expert, Jessica Diana Kartika, told the Indonesian website Netral that there are a number of sectors and professions that should be good and profitable in 2021, including banking, insurance, automotive, machinery, heavy equipment, steel contractors, iron business, computers, electronics, the agricultural sector and the human resources sector.

Seven picks for the Year of the Metal Ox

So what are some ASX-listed stocks for the Year of the Metal Ox?

1. Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG)

A metal ox … a metal bull. What a fortuitous time for a world leader in iron ore?

Fortescue is set to release first-half results on February 18 along with details of its dividend.

2. Rox Resources (ASX:RXL) 

Hendra Martono Liem, the founder of Ara Hunter Quantitative Trading System, says that everything related to yin metal and element of water will be greatly helped this year — with momentum for the mining sector and metal mines such as nickel and gold.

That brings to mind WA nickel/gold explorer Rox Resources, which appears to have a straightforward pathway to gold production at its Grace deposit and is considering options for its nickel assets in the WA’s Northern Goldfields region.

3. Si6 Metals (ASX:Si6)

Another yin metal play is Six Sigma Metals, which is exploring a 9km zone of anomalous gold mineralisation at its Monument project in WA as well as “significant anomalies” at its Maibele nickel-copper-silver-cobalt-PGE project in Botswana.

None other than small-cap investing legend Tolga Kumova is a fan of the company.

4. Collins Foods (ASX:CKF)

If Lo is right and restaurants are poised to do well in the year of the ox, there’s this KFC operator, whose sales have surged during the pandemic.

5. Eve Investments (ASX:EVE) 

Eve’s Meluka Australia subsidiary in August sent its first commercial order of its signature premium tea tree honey product to a Chinese distributor, Yandi Biotech.

Chinese New Year is a customary time for gift-giving in Asian cultures, and Eve Investments chief operating officer Ben Rohr says the “premium and exclusive” honey products would make ideal gifts.

“Our expectations are that we will see a significant increase in sales leading up to the Chinese New Year celebrations this weekend.”

6. Elanor Investors Group (ASX:ENN)

This real estate fund manager went on a series of healthcare acquisitions last year, snapping up properties where tenants provide “out-of-hospital” healthcare services like radiology.

“The Fund’s strategy capitalises on the growing cost pressures in the healthcare system which, combined with advances in health technology, is driving the delivery of healthcare services to ‘out-of-public hospital’ facilities such as lower-cost day surgeries and medical centres,” says Elanor co-head of real estate David Burgess.

The small-cap fund’s tenants sought minimal rental relief during the pandemic and the often large capital expenditure by tenants in equipping their premises means the fund’s assets have a high tenant retention rate, Burgess said.

7. Elmo Software (ASX:ELO)

If the feng shui experts are right and computer software and human resources sectors will do particularly well in 2021, it could be a good year for this cloud-based HR platform.

Elmo has been growing both organically and inorganically, snapping up UK-based expense management platform Webexpenses and also UK-based HR platform Breathe in the last half.

The company had first-half annualised recurring revenue of $74.2 million, up 42.8 per cent from a year ago.

FMG,RXL,SI6,CKF,EVE,ENN,ELO shares

 

 

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Eve Investments, Si6 Metals and Rox Resources are Stockhead advertiser, they did not sponsor this article.


This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.