New Year is celebrated in many forms around the world. The Chinese New Year, or Yuan Tan, began on January 29, as the Year of the Dog.

Each year, when visiting my local takeaway, I try to impress the proprietor with my Cantonese New Year greeting, only to be knocked back with the correct pronunciation.

Gung Ho Fat Choy, roughly translated as May Prosperity Be With You, can mean something entirely different if not said correctly.

The international calendar we use at present, based on the Gregorian calendar, goes back only about 425 years. In business terms, however, New Year is interpreted as meaning April 6.

April 5 is a date often celebrated by brokers and accountants throughout the land as the last day of the tax year, and the equivalent of New Year's Eve.

The frenetic activity of the past few months eases off, although some would say it starts all over again as the new fiscal year kicks in.

The start of 2006/07 allows a fresh subscription to ISAs.

Those smart enough to have initiated an ISA at the start of 2005/06, have enjoyed a very Happy New Year.

The FTSE 100 rose by 22 per cent, far outstripping other forms of investment.

Add in dividends paid out and returns of 25 per cent and above have been witnessed. Even better, was investment in Japan, which saw an increase of nearly 55 per cent.

One of the features associated with the rise in equity markets to new post-bear market highs, has been the stability of valuations at attractive levels.

Equity markets are not cheap, but they are not expensive either.

Over the past three years, they have moved broadly in step with earnings or profits.

In Wall Street's case, a little less, and in the Eurozone's case, a little more.

In the case of the UK, this means the price earnings ratio, or P/E, as the measure of whether a market is expensive or not, has remained in a reasonably narrow range, centred on 12.8 times 12 months forward earnings.

A wonderful study of historical investment returns is Dimson, Marsh and Staunton's Triumph of the Optimists: 101 years of Global Investment Returns.

It can be summarised as "equities good, government bonds disappointing" and "Anglo-Saxon economies have been good places to commit long-term capital".

The authors analysed returns from 16 markets between 1900 and 2000. These made up about 90 per cent of global equity market capitalisation in 1990, not far from their combined weight at the end of the period too.

The other ten per cent in 1900 comprised emerging markets like China and Russia, which crashed and burned to nothing.

The real return on equities was positive for all 16 countries, typically at a level of four to six per cent per annum compounded.

Belgium was the poorest performer, with a return of 2.5 per cent a year and Sweden the best, at 7.6 per cent.

Apart from chocolate, nothing much good has ever come out of Belgium.

A UK investor, old enough to have been invested for over 60 years, would have seen each £1 rise to £100.

* For investment advice contact Anthony Platts on 01642 608855.