Daily Report 06 December 2022

SA Company News:

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange All-Share Index closed 0.5% higher at the 74 693 level, mainly led higher by tech stocks and financials. Naspers and Prosus closed more than 3% higher.

Tharisa Plc reported a 7.3% increase in annual profit. The company said that PGM output rose 13.6% to 179 200 ounces, while chrome concentrate production increased 4.6% to 1.58 million tonnes. Headline earnings per share (HEPS) rose to $0.411 for the year ended 30^th September from $0.383 a year earlier.

Tharisa declared a final dividend of $0.04.

York Timbers has announced plans for a R250 million rights issue. The rights offer will be approximately 143 million shares that will be offered at a rate of about 43.13 rights offer shares for every 100 York shares held, at a price of R1.75 per share, which represents a discount of 33.87%.

Alexforbes said that profit for the six-months to ended 30 September 2022, fell 15% to R204m, down from R240m in the prior corresponding period. The group achieved new business of R86 million in annualised revenue. Headline earnings per share from continuing operations was down 15% year on year to 16.1 cents. An interim dividend of 15 cents per share has been declared.

Murray & Roberts (M&R) shares fell 21% to R3.75 after the company said that the planned sale of its stake in Australian subsidiary Clough to Webuild collapsed. In November, Italian industrial group Webuild agreed to buy M&R’s stake in Clough for R4bn.

 

SA Economy:

The S&P Global South Africa PMI increased to 50.6 in November of 2022 from 49.5 in October, pointing to the first increase in private sector activity in three months, as demand recovered slightly.

 

Global Economy:

The Eurozone retail sales dropped by 1.8% from October 2022, following an upwardly revised 0.8% growth in September and compared with market expectations of a 1.7% fall.

Investors see a 91% chance that the U.S. central bank will increase the interest rates by 50 basis points next week. The Federal Open Market Committee meets on 13^th and 14^th of December.

Retail sales in the United Kingdom rose 4.1% on a like-for-like basis in November 2022 from a year ago, accelerating from October’s 1.2% rise due to winter-related purchases and Black Friday.

 

Global Company:

The FTSE 100 closed 0.15% higher at 7 567.

Shares of Credit Suisse gained 5.5% on reports that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and a U.S. private-equity firm run by a former Barclays CEO have shown interest in investing more than $1 billion in Credit Suisse’s new investment banking unit.

The Hang Seng Index is lower by 0.93% to 19 335, retreating from yesterday’s huge rally. Property, tech and financials shares were the laggards.

In China, the Shanghai Composite is trading flat at 3 208.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 1.4% to 33 947, while the S&P 500 climbed 01.79% to 3 998.

Shares of Tesla Inc fell 1.7% after the company announced plans to cut the December output of the Model Y at its Shanghai plant by more than 20%.

 

Commodities:

Gold is down 2.29% to $1 767.40/oz, while Platinum is lower by 0.47% to $1 020.50/oz.

Brent crude was 3.18% lower at $83.56 a barrel.

 

Currencies:

The rand traded at R17.45 against the US Dollar, R21.47 against British Pound and R18.31 against the Euro.

The Euro is slightly weaker against the US Dollar to trade at $1.0493.