David Fuller's view In truth, this was not my initial choice for deployment of a portion of the Lihir sale proceeds. Having mentioned some interests among Fullermoney themes on 8th June, including rare earths, I actually placed a bid for Lynas Corp (weekly & daily), the Australian rare earths miner which the China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) tried to takeover in 2009, before Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board imposed strict conditions on the proposed deal. Although speculative, rare earths miners are interesting and I was content to ride on China's due diligence regarding Lynas' reserves. I placed a bid when the share was drifting but it then rose practically every day. The reason emerged last Friday when JP Morgan announced their interest and coverage, and released this report. I will not chase Lynas and over the weekend decided to buy another share of interest: Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB LN).


I last mentioned Royal Dutch Shell (weekly & daily) on 22nd June, commenting that it might benefit from BP's recent misfortune, not least in appeal to investors in search of yield. Energy is also a Fullermoney theme, in which I have been way underweight over the last three years. BP's problems have weighed on the sector recently, causing RDS's yield to rise to 6.25%, which is attractive in today's low interest rate environment. Currently, this is only covered 1.19 times but I maintain that tougher restrictions on offshore drilling will lift the floor beneath the price of crude oil. Shell's estimated p/e is 8.46 so I do not feel that I am paying up for this stake, despite an indifferent chart pattern in line with this lengthy correction in the global stock market uptrend.


This morning, I bought enough Royal Dutch Shell on the London stock exchange for it to be in the upper half of my personal top-10 long-term investments. This was also more than I would have invested in Lynas. Commencing at home this morning with Mrs Fuller's ISA account, we paid 1680.85p for Shell, using up the remaining cash available. I did the same in my own ISA account, paying 1681.91p. The main purchase was at 1678.963p for our SIPPs account.