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Port Elizabeth - The bull fought back bravely on the market floor on Friday and most shares ended the day higher, with a dozen or so chalking up gains for the week. In all the index inched up by about a percent on Friday, but still down on a week ago.
Among the gainers for the week were Anglo American (JSE: AGL) which added 2.2% during the week on the back of a bullish trading update and ahead its announcement of results for the 12 months to December due early this week.
ArcelorMittal (JSE: ACL) and Kumba Iron Ore (JSE: KOI) were also strong. Arcelor announced that losses in the year to December decreased, while Kumba is expected to announce better results this week.
Commodities
Platinum shares are still in the doldrums as the labour strike starts to take its toll, and especially expectations that it is set to last longer than initially expected.
High metal prices and a weak currency seemed to have buoyed shares for a while, but high commodity prices do not help if you don't have any to sell.
The market also benefited from a slight change in sentiment worldwide towards emerging markets. The view is that the US Federal Reserve might rethink its strategy to ease monetary stimulus after worse employment numbers, which might not reduce liquidity in the markets as much as thought.
This means that there will still be excess cash floating around the world to take a punt in riskier second-tier markets.
However, this respite might be short-lived as monetary authorities do not change policy on a single number.
Shocking
Of interest was that Adcock Ingram (JSE: AIP) and CFR Pharmaceuticals issued a statement a few days ago to say that the proposed takeover of Adcock has been formally cancelled. This was evident a week ago, after Bidvest (JSE: BVT) acquired 34.5% of Adcock's shares while CFR needed approval from 75% of the shareholders to be able to hook the deal.
What was shocking were reports that Adcock management said CFR does not need to pay the R50m penalty agreed on if the deal does not go through.
Hopefully new majority shareholder Bidvest - as well as the Public Investment Commissioner - will ask them what the reasons were. After all, R50m is a stack of banknotes which actually belong to the shareholders.
The week ahead
There will be a lot to chew on in the coming few weeks as companies start to report interim and annual results for the period to end-December.
Among the first to report interim results will be logistics company Super Group (JSE: SPG) and Kumba Iron Ore. Gold Fields Ashanti (JSE: GFI) will report quarterly results with other gold mining companies due to follow the next week.
Wooolworth (JSE: WHL) will announce its annual results, in which management comments about the trading environment and future prospects will attract a lot of attention.
Statistics SA will announce several important figures to show the state of the SA economy this week: employment data, manufacturing output and December retail sales.
Monday and Tuesday will be interesting trading days to show if Friday's strength was just the result of closing short positions before the weekend on the back of a bit of positive sentiment, or if the market is set to bounce a bit.
- Fin24
* After chasing money on the JSE for 15 years, Adriaan Kruger is now living a relaxed lifestyle in Wilderness and lectures economics part-time at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
Among the gainers for the week were Anglo American (JSE: AGL) which added 2.2% during the week on the back of a bullish trading update and ahead its announcement of results for the 12 months to December due early this week.
ArcelorMittal (JSE: ACL) and Kumba Iron Ore (JSE: KOI) were also strong. Arcelor announced that losses in the year to December decreased, while Kumba is expected to announce better results this week.
Commodities
Platinum shares are still in the doldrums as the labour strike starts to take its toll, and especially expectations that it is set to last longer than initially expected.
High metal prices and a weak currency seemed to have buoyed shares for a while, but high commodity prices do not help if you don't have any to sell.
The market also benefited from a slight change in sentiment worldwide towards emerging markets. The view is that the US Federal Reserve might rethink its strategy to ease monetary stimulus after worse employment numbers, which might not reduce liquidity in the markets as much as thought.
This means that there will still be excess cash floating around the world to take a punt in riskier second-tier markets.
However, this respite might be short-lived as monetary authorities do not change policy on a single number.
Shocking
Of interest was that Adcock Ingram (JSE: AIP) and CFR Pharmaceuticals issued a statement a few days ago to say that the proposed takeover of Adcock has been formally cancelled. This was evident a week ago, after Bidvest (JSE: BVT) acquired 34.5% of Adcock's shares while CFR needed approval from 75% of the shareholders to be able to hook the deal.
What was shocking were reports that Adcock management said CFR does not need to pay the R50m penalty agreed on if the deal does not go through.
Hopefully new majority shareholder Bidvest - as well as the Public Investment Commissioner - will ask them what the reasons were. After all, R50m is a stack of banknotes which actually belong to the shareholders.
The week ahead
There will be a lot to chew on in the coming few weeks as companies start to report interim and annual results for the period to end-December.
Among the first to report interim results will be logistics company Super Group (JSE: SPG) and Kumba Iron Ore. Gold Fields Ashanti (JSE: GFI) will report quarterly results with other gold mining companies due to follow the next week.
Wooolworth (JSE: WHL) will announce its annual results, in which management comments about the trading environment and future prospects will attract a lot of attention.
Statistics SA will announce several important figures to show the state of the SA economy this week: employment data, manufacturing output and December retail sales.
Monday and Tuesday will be interesting trading days to show if Friday's strength was just the result of closing short positions before the weekend on the back of a bit of positive sentiment, or if the market is set to bounce a bit.
- Fin24
* After chasing money on the JSE for 15 years, Adriaan Kruger is now living a relaxed lifestyle in Wilderness and lectures economics part-time at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
