Information research made easier

Tuesday, 21 March, 2000 - 21:00
WITH the increasing use of the Internet to obtain information to undertake any financial dealings there are many sites that have sprung up to provide both the information and access to it.

A leader in this area is the Australian Stock Exchange.

The ASX website www.asx.com.au provides national trading statistics, live sharemarket indices, details of courses that are run by the ASX and closing prices on various stocks, among other things.

Most banks and fund managers provide access to their web sites and also often supply economic commentary to assist in making investment decisions.

These include the Macquarie Bank web site which is at www.macquarie.com.au For those with unit trust investments, www.investor.fairfax.com.au provides research and unit trust prices from Assirt and Morningstar.

The Australian Tax Office site at www.ato.gov.au offers links to the tax reform site to enable businesses to register for an Australian Business Number.

The ATO site also provides information related to the tax system and process for both practitioners and individuals seeking information related to their own tax position.

If you are looking for an insurance quote, either personal or for property, www.insurancemyway.com.au is one way compare quotes from a number of service providers.

Large insurance companies usually provide for a calculator system to be interactively accessed through their sites.

For news information, the sites of The Australian Financial Review (www.afr.com.au) and Business News (www.businessnews.com.au) are useful information sources.

Both sites provide access to archived material from previous issues, so if you missed something, all is not lost.

The Australian Society of CPAs’ web site at www.cpaonline.com.au is topical and also offers a links to other sites.

Many financial planners and stockbrokers also have their own sites, for example, www.jbwere.com.au and www.myadviser.com.au/smcr.

Most of the sites listed here also lead to other sites where more information can be accessed.