Investors looked past a big decline in full-year profit and no final dividend from automotive group Motus, sending its shares over 30% higher at their best yesterday. Some analysts believe they could have further to go too: Investec has raised the stock to Buy with a price target of R50. Back in January, the same bank cut the Motus to Hold, with a price target of R86, showing just how far it has fallen due to the impact of lockdowns on global vehicle sales and car rentals.

Discovery also held back on a dividend after big Covid-19 provisions and the impact of volatile interest rates nearly wiped out its full-year earnings. Operationally, it says its business remains sound, with Discovery Bank also starting to gain traction.

Meanwhile, like other gold producers Pan African Resources has benefitted from the rising gold price, as well as a good operational performance. It's rewarding shareholders with a record dividend.

Also today, Brait's shares rallied on the back of an update on its portfolio of companies as it received the final payment for the sale of its majority stake in Iceland Foods. But Mpact fell sharply after it declared force majeure due to four weeks without electricity at its Springs paper mill.

Finally, the rand continued its winning streak yesterday, touching R16.25 to the dollar in a week that sees both the US Federal Reserve and the Reserve Bank meeting to decide the way forward for interest rates. Gary Booysen, director and portfolio manager at Rand Swiss, provides some valuable insight into the currency markets, as well as which way the market is leaning on the SARB's rate decision this afternoon.

I hope you have a good day.

Stephen Gunnion

Managing Editor, InceConnect

The latest from Ingham Analytics

Ingham Analytics in their recent note entitled "Steel yourselves" indicated that they remain exposed to iron ore counters but alert from a trading point of view to sell rallies after buying dips. This applies to iron ore shares Kumba, BHP, Fortescue and Rio Tinto. The iron ore market is at multi-year highs driven by stronger steel demand. China is the driver, but demand is now picking up elsewhere. For mining investors this is a useful and timely analysis.

Other recent notes that have proved popular downloads include "The devil incarnate, Softbank?", "Looking for dips" (on Capitec), "Gold bug?", "An Apple a day...?", "Skin on the bones" and "Powell-ing along".