Investment

ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) has sold the last of its shareholdings in Visa Inc.

• The company sold the last of its stake in Visa selling off 3.5 million shares. ANZ netted a profit after tax of $244 million from the trade.

Telstra (ASX:TLS) has announced a plan to take a big chunk of the growing cloud computing market. The telco is reportedly spending 800 million to cement its role as a major data storage provider in the country.

Chief executive David Thodey wants the house to generate 25 to 30 percent of the company's overall revenue in the next three to five years in an ambitious target plan. The cash out will mean a 40 percent rise in Telstra's data capacity.

US Venture Fund, Accel Partners have bought an investment into the OzForex business, an online foreign exchange service. OzForex is majority owned by Macquarie Private Wealth, which bought a majority share in 2007 and is a subsidiary of (ASX:MQG). The OzForex Group, which operates as OzForex, UKForex, Canadian Forex and NZForex. Accel would not reveal the size of its investment, but rumours place the transaction as between $70-110 million.

Telecommunications provider, Macquarie Telecom Group (ASX:MAQ) have announced that it is investing in a new Sydney data centre, building the piece of infrastructure in Sydney's Silicon corridor at North Ryde with an investment of $60 million.

The Chinese energy companies continue their quest for securing oil and gas supply for the fast growing economy of the country with Sinopec on the move to achieve $1 billion worth of stake in the Queensland gas project of Santos Limited (STO). Sinopec is one of the three major China based energy companies that is currently focusing on the global sources for resources like oil and gas.

Lihir Gold Limited (LGL), an Australian company involved in gold mining, exploration and processing with gold mine and processing facilities located in Lihir Island had the best performing stocks of the 13th week in ASX100 with a gain of 31.6 percent or 96 cents to its stock price closing the week at $3.99.

Sydney real estate property prices have fallen 10 per cent since the boom ended in late 2003 - and by 2.3 per cent in the last quarter - a Bureau of Statistics survey has revealed, suggesting the market slump is deeper, more protracted and from a lower peak than previously thought.

The downturn is creating opportunities for potential first-home buyers and bargain hunters, but a seller who bought a property in the past three years is likely to lose money if forced to sell, after stamp duty and real estate costs.