Nudged by your editor and others, BullionVault.com, our advertiser, an affiliate of the World Gold Council, now offers 100 gram gold bars at very low prices, efficiently cast and delivered to your home in the USA or Britain. The World Gold Council, which groups gold-mining companies, sponsors investment vehicles for gold like the SPDR Gold ETF, GLD which saw huge inflows last month, and also backs our bullion trading and holding advertiser which now will deliver gold as well.

I and the vast majority of Bullion Vault users prefer to keep their bullion safe inside a vault. Fully insured at the lowest costs, it's ready for instant sale at maximum value 24/7. But if you've bought gold on BullionVault, it's your property and you now have the right to withdraw it should you choose.

Now you can withdraw gold from Bullion Vault in the form of a Pamp Fortuna 100 gram bar which will be smelted for you and delivered for $200 for making the bar and shipping it to your confirmed address in the USA. In Britain, the charge is GBP 65.

These are cheap prices for gold bars, but remember you will have to pay insurance after taking delivery; leaving the gold with Bullion Vault (BV) means cheap insurance. And you will have to send the gold back if you want to sell it, whereas leaving it with the company lets you trade on 4 bullion markets anytime you want to. So I am not taking delivery, but some people may want to get their own gold bars at a significant discount from what banks or bullion dealers would demand.

If you are an existing customer and already own enough gold in a single vault, you'll pay £65 for bar manufacture and insured shipping to your UK home address or $200 if you live in the USA.

How can BV offer bars at such prices? It is a limited offer for about a month that may not be repeated unless it pays for the BV. It plans to batch up the orders received during that window and place an order with the bar manufacturer, meaning it will not have to finance stock.

The bar is a standard size from a respected London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) refiner. Batching orders will keep the operational burden to a minimum and keep prices low. You can withdraw bullion from BV in other formats or sizes but different rates and processes will apply.

To get a gold bar, or several, you need:

*A validated BullionVault account (identity and ownership of bank account proven).

*At least 100g gold held in a single vault within your BullionVault account.

*Enough money in your account to pay for manufacture and insured shipping.

*Proof of your residential address for shipping.

Bullion Vault will only deliver to a client's home address as proven by a recent credit card statement or utility bill. While only now available in the US and Britian, the offer may be made to other countries soon.

To buy a bar, visit www.global-investing.com to click onto the ad and:

1)open a BullionVault account

2) fund your account by by bank transfer (UK) or by wire (US)

3) buy gold in one of the secure vaults (paying a commission 0.05 to 0.50% depending on order size)

4) upload proof of identity, address and ownership of the bank account used to deposit funds.

BV is the world’s largest online gold and silver investment service, allowing private investors access to the professional bullion markets. BullionVault manages $2 billion in client property for over 50,000 active users. BullionVault gold and silver is securely stored in professional vaults. Because of this, the custody fee, which covers storage and insurance, is much lower than anything comparable.

Only BullionVault gives you the opportunity to buy gold and silver at the benchmark London Prices published on the LBMA website. It’s free to open a BV account and typically takes under a minute.

Bullion Vault is part-owned by the World Gold Council and a full member of the LBMA. BV has won two Queen’s Awards for Enterprise. Its users rate it positively (4.7 out of 5 based on 106 reviews). Here are the telephone numbers if you don't want to do this on the web on your own:

UK and International: +44 (0)208-6000-130; US and Canada toll-free: 1-888-908-2858. Opening Hours: 9am to 10pm (UK), 4am to 5pm (EST), Monday-Friday.

Addresses:

Galmarley Ltd T/A BullionVault, Landmark House (12th Floor), Blacks Road, Hammersmith, London W6 9DP, United Kingdom

BullionVault Inc., 575 Madison Avenue, 10th floor, New York NY 10022 USA. Note that my company gets a royalty if people join BullionVault, where I personally hold my physical gold, via our website, www.global-investing.com, which doesn't cost you anything.

*Portugal Telecom took a hit for no good reason yesterday when Zeinal Mohamed Bava, the company CEO, stepped down from that job while remaining PT's chairman of the board. This was part of the planned move to run post-merger Oi which he will now head in Brazil. PT will be run by Armando Almeida. Oi also reported revenues all but flat at 9.02 bn Brazilian reais, or $3.93 bn, despite many fewer working days while the World Cup exercises were going on. Oi losses were sharply up at Rs 522 mn ($97 mn) vs prior year Q2 124 mn. Oi cashflow (measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA) rose 7% thanks to more 4G sales. It was always assumed that Bava would move to Brazil. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and it ain't easy to hang on here.

*China Tek reported H1 revenues rose 4% to RMB 173.8 mn, of which under 19% was non-logistics sales of inventory software, and the rest a result of Chinese internet sales needing delivery services, AKA logistics. The London-listed small cap CTEK saw before tax profits rise 9% y/o/y to RMB 144.7 mn, revealing a profit margin of 83% unless I got that wrong. It also generates huge amounts of cash and closed the half with RMB 411.6 mn in hand, up 65% YTD. That after payment of 4 UK pence/sh for the 2013 dividend paid June 9. That's the good news.

The bad is that it is increasingly doing business with a small number of firms, and is at risk from Shanghai-listed Joe One, a show and apparel firm, which now accounts for over 3% of sales. The other bad news is that talks on the new logistics park CTEK wants to build are delayed by Chinese govt. upheaval and fear in the bureaucracy over doing anything that might look like a bribe was paid. That is my interpretation.

Analayst Simon Willis at brokers Daniel Stewart here reiterated his 9% 2014 eps growth target noting that the stock paid 6.5% and the dividend was growing ~5%/yr.

*Israeli Compugen reported a newly 100-fold increase in Q2 revenues at $2 mn thanks to milestone payments from Bayer and its cost of revenues only rose 11-fold to $900,000. The bottom line was a $2.32 mn loss after non-cash distributions of options, and an adjusted eps of 5 cents/sh vs analyst forecasts of merely 2 cents. Cash on hand was $113.3 mn after a secondary offering in March raised $67 mn. CGEN burns cash at about $24 mn/yr so it can keep going for a while. Brian Coleman in Seeking Alpha Pro calls CGEN “a wealth creation opportunity.” He is the Domino Analytics analyst, not the disgraced UK Tory politician with the same name.

*An even better result was reported by fellow-Israeli Caesarstone, Frida Ghitis's kitchen counter maker which reproted record revenues, up 30.4%, to $110.1 mn, of which $48 mn was booked in the USA, making up for absent orders from Russky oligarchs and their trophy wives. Operating income as up 6% at $23.6 mn and adjusted EBITDA up 23% to $30.4 mn. However, because of investments in Georgia (the state not the country) to beef up US production, the EBITDA margin fell to 26.2% from 27.7% and eps to 51 cents from 56 cents. Investment in Richmond Hill, GA, will now be raised 15% to $115 mn, which will reduce margins going forward. Margins in the last quarter fell to 41% of sales from 48% because of foreign exchange costs and new issue of employee options, which even Kibbutz workers want to get.

CSTE upped its 2014 revenue guidance to $435-445 mn from earlier level of $420-430. It now expects EBITDA for the year to hit $112-7 mn vs earlier estimates of $108-112 mn. Hail Caesar! Hail Frida!

*Zurich Financial, the Swiss insurer of which I sold half on Monday, missed analyst estimates in Q2, reporting (in US$s, its operating currency) $837 mn profits. In Swissies, its currency of dividends, the increase was closer to 2% at SwFr5.07/sh. The key metric, the combined ratio, did well, down 2 basis points to 96.1. This measures premium income and the money made from the portfolio and the lower it is the better. ZURVY gained because the weather was benign and it did not have to pay for major catastrophes in Q2 this year. Of course that can change.

ZURVY was helped by sacking 670 staffers as part of its restructuring streamlining program. It also was boosted by its US Farmer's Insurance sub, particularly by the reinsurance arm which saw profits rise 9% to $756 mn, accounting for most of the bottom line. It came mainly from the insurance pro side at Farmer's Re. I think that unlike the Swiss side of the business where money can be moved into and out of reserves, the US arm reports more honestly. It paid higher taxes in Switzerland and most of the fired workers are Swiss, so it wants to keep profits there hidden.

Zurich is selling the retail side of its Russian insurance arm to Russian-listed OLMA Group it announced in the conference call, but it is keeping the Russian corporate side.

*Agrium net from contiuing operations fell to US$625 mn or $4.34/sh, down 13.2% but the Canada plant food frim still beat guidance if the one-off reserve for invironbmental remdiation is excluded, but by only 1 cents/sh. Sales were up 6% so the drop in earnings marks priceing pressures in the fertilizer business plus its initial higher costs of sales at its new retailing arms. EBITD rose 28% y/o/y thanks to the acquisitions so the odds are that business will improve. Exports (mostly to the USA) rose 11%. AGU raised its 2014 EPS guidance to $3.85-4.35.

*Ambitious Veresen had a net loss in Q2 of C$2.4 mn or 1 cent/sh, vs net income of $11.5 mn or 6 cents/sh the prior year Q2. This despite asset sales which added distributable cash.The main reason was lower gas prices on which its pipeline throughput profits depend. There also were losses at power plants it operates.The more important reason was that it is spending heavily to bring on its Jordan Cove LGN export terminal and got US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approvals for the project. It awaits Canadian okays for the supplying pipelines. Project spending is eating profits with commercial engineering and financing for Jordan Cove, our reason for owning FCGYF in the first place. It was tipped by Martin Ferera, our reporter in Canada.

*BCE reported earnings of C$606 mn, up 6.1% or 82 loony cent/sh up 6.5% (because of buybacks.) The quadruple play firm is still suffering losses from wireline business, although they have been reduced by new marketing ploys, like ending 3-yr contracts and prepayment options. The other business, fibeoptics, internet and Bell Media (TV) are all doing better. BCE also is taking the lead in offering lowered roaming fees, compared to US telcxos, and has just added South Korea to the list of countries where you can take your Canadian phone with you, along with the US, most of Europe, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zaland, Bermuda, China, and Japan. Canada is a melting pot. BCE has got approvals to buy back Bell Aliant from Ottawa competition authorities.

It will invest $791 mn in next generation broadband in Canada despite a drop in free cash flow of nearly 10% y/o/y to C$815 mn. BCE had no choice. 75% of cellphone clients are now using smart phones.

*Liberty Global Media reported good operating results but wound up with a loss of $249.9 mn because of “losses on derivatives”. This is another earnings surprise on the downside from John Malone's vehicle for European investment. Offsetting some of that loss was a $333 mn gain from the sale of Chellonmedia TV in the quarter. The operating profit was up 50% including proceeds, at $669.5 mn and revenues also rose 50% tyo $4.6 bn. New subscriptions for its cable plus telco operations in Britain, Holland, and Poland rose 25% from prior year and the Dutch business will gain from the plan to take over Ziggo and merge it with UPC in the current half year.

LBTYA is now trading at a p/e ratio of 76. You have to believe in Malone to stay the course. Thomson-Reuters analysts have turned bearish on the share after this negative quarter and it also expects flat revenues in 2015. There is plenty of debt to scare people. As readers know everytime we get new C shares because of a new deal I sell the new shares, but keep the A shares we got for having sold Virgin Media to Liberty Global. I think the risk level is overstated by the numbers because Malone has other assets he can tap. But this is not a stock for little old ladies.

*Hikma was uprated by Citigroup to overweight with a target price of GBP 20 vs a prior TP of GB 18.5. It will benefit from the opening of improved access for foreigners in its main listing site, Dubai.

*Infosys staffers are hinting INFY may use some of its cash hoard to buy back shares. The stock rose in Bombay trading on the rumor. Even if the offer doesn't go to ADR owners it will reduce the number of shares out. Note that while the city is now remaned Mumbai the exchange has kept its historic name, along with the gin.

*Mexichem will buy from Strategic Value Fund for euros 219 mn ($294 mn) the PVC producer Vestolit GmbH of Germany, a specialist in high-impact plastic for windows and other housing-related polyvinyl chloride resin lines. The move enters a new part of the market for the ambitious Mexican chemical producer, which already is a world player in fluoride chemicals. MXCHF rose 4.3% in Mexican trading on the news yesterday and is also up today while the bolsa is down.

*Paddy Power plc won a further investment by The Capital Group last week, 11.97% of its outstanding shares taken directly by the California fund manager. In additon, CG's Small Cap World Fund owns 4.41% of PDYPF while its Euro Pacific Growth Fund owns 6.49%. That explains why my attempt to buy more was not successful. Concerns over the accounts at rival 888.com may account for the new US interest.

*Naspers of S. Africa hit a new high of $128.50. NPSNY.

*Guangshen Railroad, the red rooster, is crowing. GSH rose to $22.76 on thoughts of Chinese growth resuming. And maybe on news that it is not in the sites of the new clean-up lot in Beijing after all.

*An Arizona reader asked about our Polish Investable ETF, EPOL. It has taken a hit because Nomura downed its outlook for Poland because of German growth slowing and of course loss of Russian sales. The Kremlin has banned US and European food imports to try to riposte against sanctions, with Poland the target. However, I think Putin underestimates Russian demand for more fresh produce and easy meals both of which are Polish specialities. Here in London while launched by Aldi andLidl in their price wars against establishes supermarkets, I note that even our local Turkish grocer now offers Polish sausages (not Halal of course) and herrings. I think Poland has a future as the source of shopping cart bargains for Europe replacing the Ukraine which has other matters to deal with first.