Sport

Jazira not taking anything for granted

The early leaders do not want to leave it late and will look to build on their lead with three more points from Al Nasr.

Amith Passela
Amith Passela

December 05, 2009

  • English
  • Arabic

Al Jazira, the Pro League leaders, face Al Nasr tonight knowing they can extend their lead to seven points over Abu Dhabi rivals Al Wahda, who do not play until Monday. "We need to build a good lead because we never know what to expect from every single game," said coach Abel Braga. "We were in this position last season, and yet we ended without any trophies. "That was a good lesson for us not to take any team for granted. Nasr are another team that wants to move up the order and we need to reproduce something like the last game to return with three points." Jazira came back from two goals down to win 4-2 over Sharjah last week and Braga wants his team to reproduce the kind of performance they showed in the second half of that game. "It is the kind of play I would expect from the team in every game. It is hard to keep playing at the same high level but that's the only way to move forward," he said. Third-placed Al Ain also play on Monday, meaning Baniyas can move up to second, at least for 24 hours, if they beat Al Dhafra today. "At the beginning, our goal was to finish in the middle of the league table," said coach Lutfi al Banzarti. "Now we feel we can still do better. So we have raised the bar and told out players to fight for the top four places." "The league is very tightly grouped three points from this game will certainly put our team in a steady position," added captain Mohammed Salem. At the other end of the table, Ajman remain without a point at the bottom after a 3-0 defeat to Al Ahli yesterday. The Brazilian Bare opened the scoring for the champions before goals from Ali Abbas and Hassan Al Ibrahim in injury time sealed the win. apassela@thenational.ae

How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?

If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.

Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.

Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.

Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).

Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal. 

Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.

By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.

As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.

Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.

He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.” 

This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”

Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.

ADMFootballSPORTUAE Sport