MTN's shares fell on Friday after the network operator said it didn't plan on paying an interim dividend - despite flagging a strong rise in first-half earnings just a week earlier. It's still focused on reducing debt by selling non-core businesses and also wants to maintain its liquidity to deal with any further fallout from Covid-19.

Novus Holdings, the printing and packaging group that was unbundled from Naspers close to three years ago, expects the impact of the pandemic to be lasting, particularly as a result of all the magazine titles that have closed permanently. It only expects to return to a profit in its 2022 financial year - if all lockdown restrictions are lifted by the end of March.

Meanwhile, Glencore has been supported by its counter-cyclical marketing business, with the result that it believes its full-year performance will come in at the top end of its guidance.

More on those stories to follow, along with results from Sebata Holdings and Astoria Investments, which says it's been encouraged by trading at CNA since stores were reopened as lockdown restrictions were eased.

Finally, with travel restrictions also starting to ease and intra-provincial leisure travel now allowed, Resorts is offering the chance to win a weekend getaway, giving the lucky winner something to look forward to after more than four months of lockdown. Click here to find out more.

I hope you have a good week.

Stephen Gunnion

Managing Editor, InceConnect

Recent notes from Ingham Analytics

With the interim results last week out of Kumba we reference our note "Kumba, qaphela!" on 15 June - above R500 per share traders should take money off the table or go short whilst long-only investors should not buy new stock at these elevated levels. That said, iron ore was 55% of Anglo American EBITDA but largely due to underperformance elsewhere, albeit short lived.

Anglo American also reported and readers of "Cold on coal" will not be surprised that coal profits fell by 98% with Covid-19 restrictions also a factor. Anglo also in passing alluded to an exit of their South African thermal coal operations, possibly through a primary JSE listing. Coal takes up $3.7bn in capital employed and has precious little to show for it.

The previous week we predicted that the 10-year Treasury note would fall below 0.6% - indeed, this Friday it was 0.535%. Gold meanwhile is nudging towards $2,000 per ounce. In "Forever blowing bubbles..." we pointed to rising currency volatility and financialisation of world equity markets, having reached extremes unrecorded in modern financial history.

In the meantime, Tencent is on the prowl, circling to buy the stake in NYSE-listed search operator Sogou it does not own. "Tencent on top of its games" focuses on the gaming part of this massive group. Prosus doesn't look good - if you'd have bought one share of Prosus on the Amsterdam exchange at the beginning of January, in US dollar terms your share would be worth 17% more whilst Tencent is worth 40% more in USD.