Daily Report 15 February 2023

SA Company News:

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange All-Share Index closed flat at the 79 858 level.

In trading update from the Spar Group, the company said that its turnover in the 18 weeks ended 28^th of January rose 7.8%, compared with 5.8% growth recorded a year ago. Spar grocery wholesale business increased sales by 9.7% and Tops at Spar liquor sales increased by 1.6%. The financial results for the six months ending 31 March 2023 will be published on SENS on or about Wednesday, 14 June 2023.

In a trading update from Telkom, the company said that group revenue was up 2.3% to R11 031 million

and group’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were down 13.5% to R2.492 billion. Telkom also said that they are planning to raise R1 billion by the end of 2023 by selling a portion of its device receivables book to financial institutions.

DRD Gold reported interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2022. The company said that revenue was up 6% to R2.65 billion vs year-ago of R2.50 billion. Operating income fell 5% to R792.4 million vs a year ago of R832 million. DRD declared a dividend of 20 cents per share.

Santam said in a trading update that the company expect its headline earnings per share to decline in a range of between 17% and 37% to end-December 2022, due to lower underwriting as well as investment income. EPS for the year is expected to be in the range of R15.69 to R20.68, compared with R24.91 a year ago.

 

SA Economy:

The Mineral Resources and Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe said that the new electricity minister will focus exclusively on Eskom’s power stations and will try to improve Eskom’s energy availability factor (EAF), while the energy minister will continue to focus on new procurement.

Inflation and retail sales figures will be published later today. January’s consumer inflation reading is expected to ease to 6.9% year on year from 7.2% in December.

 

Global Economy:

The annual inflation rate in the US slowed slightly to 6.4% in January 2023 from 6.5% in December, less than market forecasts of 6.2%. A slowdown was seen in food prices, while the cost of used cars and trucks continued to decline.

The U.K. unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7% in the last three months of 2022 while pay growth accelerated further, signaling that the labour market remained tight despite weakening economic growth.

The People’s Bank of China kept the interest rate of its one-year medium-term lending facility unchanged at 2.75%.

 

Global Company:

The FTSE 100 closed 0.08% higher at 7 953.

Vodafone shares gained 3.5% after Liberty Global said it had bought a 5% stake in the telecom operator.

The Hang Seng Index is lower by 1.45% to 20 806.

In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.37% to 3 281.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.46% lower to 34 089, while the S&P 500 closed flat at 4 136,

as investors started to digest the latest US inflation data.

Airbnb reported a profit of $1.9 billion in 2022, said that the company benefitted from strong travel demand despite high inflation and recession fears.

 

Commodities:

Gold is up 0.11% to $1 854/oz, while Platinum is lower by 2.16% to $933.10/oz.

Brent crude was 1.2% lower at $85.58 a barrel.

 

Currencies:

The rand traded at R17.99 against the US Dollar, R21.86 against British Pound and R19.27 against the Euro.

The Euro is slightly weaker against the US Dollar to trade at $1.0714.