Daily Report 23 January 2023

SA Company News:

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange All-Share Index closed 0.3% lower at the 74 548 level.

Mr. Price shares fell 7% to R165.12 per share, despite reporting the highest third-quarter retail sales.

Property group Fortress has lost its real estate investment trust (REIT) status, after the final decision by the JSE. The company objected in December, the JSE announced that it had dismissed the objection and the REIT status of Fortress will be removed on the 1^st of February.

Attacq reported improved retail trading figures for November and December 2022 compared with the same period in 2021 as shoppers returned to its malls. The Mall of Africa recorded retail sales turnover of more than R1.3bn for November and December. Overall retail sales and the number of shoppers across its malls rose by 12.6% from 2021 and by 15% for November and December respectively.

 

SA Economy:

President Cyril Ramaphosa convened a special meeting with the President’s Coordinating Council (PCC) on Friday to address the ongoing energy crisis. The National Energy Crisis Committee said that if all goes to plan, about 8 800MW of generation capacity can be added or restored to the grid within the next 12 months and should reduce the need for load-shedding.

The focus this week will be on the SA Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) which will deliver the interest rate decision on Thursday. The consensus forecast is for a 50 basis point (bps) increase.

 

Global Economy:

The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong rose to 2% in December 2022, after steadying at 1.8% in the past two consecutive months and slightly above market forecasts of 1.9%.

The U.S. government hit its $31.4 trillion borrowing limit last week Thursday, now the House Republicans want cuts to government spending before they will approve a higher ceiling, a similar demand in 2011 prompted S&P to cut the U.S. credit rating for the first time and caused chaos in financial markets.

 

Global Company:

The FTSE 100 closed 0.3% higher at 7 770, with Glencore being among the top performers, up over 2%.

The Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite are closed for the for Lunar New Year holiday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.99% higher to 33 044, while the S&P 500 was up 1.86% to 3 972.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet said that they were cutting costs by laying off 12 000 workers. Its shares jumped 5.3%.

Netflix reported a surge in the number of subscribers and that saw its shares gain 8.5%.

 

Commodities:

Gold is up 0.22% to $1 926/oz, while Platinum is higher by 0.59% to $1 038/oz.

Brent crude was 1.68% lower at $87.63 a barrel.

 

Currencies:

The rand traded at R17.10 against the US Dollar, R21.22 against British Pound and R18.62 against the Euro.

The Euro is slightly firmer against the US Dollar to trade at $1.0892.