Daily Report 09 February 2023

SA Company News:

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange All-Share Index closed 0.6% higher at the 79 976 level.

Sappi reported year-on-year profit growth in the first quarter ended 31 December 2022, driven by an increase in prices for paper products. The company’s profit totaled $190 million, or $0.34 per share, in the first quarter, up from $123 million, or $0.22 per share, in the year-ago period. Sappi declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share. Shares in Sappi declined nearly 8% yesterday R50.13 per share.

Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO) said that they expect headline earnings per share to rise at least 20% to end-December 2022. Profit in the group’s building and civil engineering division is expected to be up by at least 50% in comparison to the prior period, with revenue expected to be up by at least 30%.

Anglo American Plc said that they want to buy a 9.9% stake in Canada Nickel Co Inc, the owner of the Crawford nickel project in Ontario, in its bid to expand production of the niche metal.

Steinhoff announced the successful completion of the placement of 265 million shares in Pepkor Holdings Limited, raising total gross proceeds of R4.9 billion. The shares were placed at a price of R18.50 per share, a 5.3% discount to the pre-launch Pepkor share price as at market close on the 8^th of February. The proceeds from the placing will in due course be used to de-leverage Steinhoff’s capital structure.

 

SA Economy:

The focus will be on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation address later on today, where the President is under pressure to offer some solution to tackle the country’s worsening power crisis.

In research published, Nedbank reported that the value of new projects announced during the year fell to R248.5bn from R392.7bn the year before, reflecting the devastating effect blackouts, as well as the deterioration in global growth prospects that impacted on business confidence.

 

Global Economy:

According to data from the German statistics, trade between Germany and China rose to a record level last year. Goods worth around 298 billion euros ($320 billion) were traded between the two countries, up 21% from 2021.

The annual inflation rate in Germany edged higher to 8.7% in January 2023 from a four-month low of 8.6% in the previous month, but below market forecasts of 8.9%.

The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, which measures the cost of shipping goods worldwide, rose 2 points to 603 points, holding close to the lowest level since June 2020.

 

Global Company:

The FTSE 100 closed 0.26% higher at 7 885, BP and miner Glencore were among the top gainers, up almost 2% each.

The Hang Seng Index is higher by 1.27% to 21 553.

Wynn Resorts rose 4.69% after the company reported $1 billion in revenue for the latest quarter, higher than compared to analysts’ expectations of $958 million.

In China, the Shanghai Composite is up 1.06% to 3 267. Growth-oriented consumer and technology stocks led the market higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.61% lower to 33 949, while the S&P 500 was down 1.12% to 4 117.

Microsoft Corp gained 1.9% after the company said it was revamping its Bing search engine and Edge Web browser with artificial intelligence.

Google’s parent Alphabet Inc fell over 7% as concerns lingered about the rising competition in the artificial intelligence space.

 

Commodities:

Gold is up 0.30% to $1 877.40/oz, while Platinum is higher by 0.1% to $978.70/oz.

Brent crude was 1.65% higher at $85.09 a barrel.

 

Currencies:

The rand traded at R17.68 against the US Dollar, R21.40 against British Pound and R19.00 against the Euro.

The Euro is slightly firmer against the US Dollar to trade at $1.0742.