Daily Report 03 March 2023

SA Company News:

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange All-Share Index closed 1.4% lower at the 77 547 level.

FirstRand Ltd reported a 15% rise in interim profit as the bank said that it continues to benefit from a high interest rate environment. Profit attributable to ordinary equity holders came in at R17.98 billion, compared with R15.82 billion a year ago. Headline earnings per share was R3.22 cents for the half year ended 31 December, up from R2.81 posted in the same period a year ago and earnings per share (EPS) grew to R3.20 from R2.82. FirstRand declared a dividend of R1.89 per share.

AB InBev’s earnings rose in the fourth quarter, as organic volumes dropped 0.6%. AB Inbev reported net profit of $2.84 billion, up from $1.96 billion ahead of a consensus forecast of $2.20 billion, taken from FactSet. The company declared a dividend of 75 European cents from 50 cents the prior year.

Santam reported that profit attributable to equity holders for the year ended 31 December 2022 was R1.99 billion, compared with R2.75 billion a year ago. Earnings per share (EPS) stood at R18.03 from R24.78. The company declared a final dividend of R8.45, payable the 27^th of March.

Curro reported a decline in profit despite a jump in revenue and higher enrolments. Profit of the company decreased 6.4% year on year to R235 million, compared with R259 million a year ago. Headline earnings per share (HEPS) was 61.40c vs the guidance range of between 57.4 – 65.5c. Earnings per share (EPS) stood at 39.9 cents from 43.3 cents. Curro declared dividend of 11.08 cents per share.

In a trading update from Sanlam, the company said that they expect HEPS to be in the range of 411c to 455c vs year-ago 433c, between (5%) and +5% y/y. EPS in range of 551c to 597c vs year-ago 459c, between +20% and +30% y/y. Sanlam’s 2022 financial results will be released on Thursday, 9^th of March.

In a trading update from Nedbank Group, the company said that they forecast headline EPS for the year ended 31 December 2022, to be in the range of R27.40 to R28.58, increase of between 16% and 21%. EPS to be between R28.73 and R29.89, reflecting growth of between 24% and 29%.

 

SA Economy:

According to figures published by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (NAAMSA) new-vehicle sales improved by 2.6% from a year earlier. The motor industry sold 45 352 cars and commercial vehicles in February, compared to 44 224 in the corresponding month of 2022.

 

Global Economy:

The consumer price inflation in the Euro Area fell slightly to 8.5% in February 2023, but above market expectations of 8.2%.

The Euro Area unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.7% in January 2023 and slightly above market estimates of 6.6%. Markets have already priced in for the ECB to hike by 50bps this month and are expecting another 50bps in May.

The Caixin China General Composite PMI rose to 54.2 in February 2023 from 51.1 a month earlier.

The Caixin China General Services PMI climbed to 55.0 in February 2023 from 52.9 in the previous month.

The S&P Global Hong Kong PMI rose to 53.9 in February 2023 from 51.2 in January.

 

Global Company:

The FTSE 100 closed 0.37% higher at 7 944.

The Hang Seng Index is higher by 0.27% to 20 611, with gains coming from large caps such as Baidu Inc. up 3.5%, ENN Energy Holdings up 3% and JD. Com gaining 2.5%.

In China, the Shanghai Composite is up 0.24% to 3 318.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.04% higher to 33 033, while the S&P 500 was up 0.75% to 3 981.

Dell Technologies fell 3% after the company reported fourth quarter EPS of $1.80 versus $1.65 expected on revenues of $25 billion versus $23.51 billion expected.

Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud-computing arm plans to invest $6 billion in Malaysia by 2037 to launch cloud-computing infrastructure in that country.

 

Commodities:

Gold is down 0.23% to $1 833/oz, while Platinum is higher by 0.15% to $962.90/oz.

Brent crude was 0.52% higher at $84.75 a barrel.

 

Currencies:

The rand traded at R18.19 against the US Dollar, R21.78 against British Pound and R19.31 against the Euro.

The Euro is slightly weaker against the US Dollar to trade at $1.061.