Transtasman punts by IRG: Healthy on all fronts

CSL has been one of the beneficiaries of the outbreak of swine flu, its shares gaining with the rest of health-related stocks. However, CSL is much more than a punter's stock. It's an exceptional company, four times the size of Telecom.

Its pharmaceutical and blood-related products make it recession-proof, as CSL develops and makes biopharmaceutical products based on blood.

Its Human Papilloma Virus vaccine has delivered a new earnings stream, with royalty from Merck and GlaxoSmithKline.

In the half-year ended December 2008, CSL reported a net profit of A$502 million ($645 million), an increase of 44 per cent on the previous comparable period.

But the share does not come cheap and it consistently trades on a price/equity ratio close to 30 times earnings.

Fast catching up

Telecom shares are attracting punters ahead of the telco's launch into the 3G era.

Telecom was a few years behind Vodafone in providing the fast data connections of 3G.

But you cannot underestimate its ability to employ its branding muscle and resources towards taking market share off Vodafone.

Other parts of Telecom, of course, still have an uphill battle against emerging competitors.

From an investment point of view Telecom is only as good an investment as the price you pay for its shares, and it trades in a wide band, reflecting the ever-changing perception about its prospects.

The yields you can expect from the share, mostly in dividends, depend on the price on a given day.

But on a bad day for Telecom shares, you can lock in a dividend yield that is attractively high.