| A rally on Wall Street on Friday bodes well for the JSE today following last week's severe sell-off. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both gained more than 9% and European markets also closed higher on Friday as governments increased their efforts to stem the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the gains came too late to support the JSE, which ended 0.3% lower on Friday, extending its losses for the week to 15%. Notably, Sasol recovered 36% to just above R50 after a disastrous week for the oil and chemicals group. It plans to update investors on its plans to ride out the weak oil price tomorrow. Sasol has been gyrating, shocked into a tailspin following the news of the Saudi-Russia oil price war that sent Brent crude plunging to under $35/bbl. Ingham Analytics in their note "What a gas" on Thursday 5 March, the day before the Saudi-Russia bust up, made the point that even if $52/bbl oil prevailed for a full year the negative impact on profits would be significant. They'll be shortly updating their view on what the current scenarios for earnings are but meantime for those who have not read the note this is a very useful perspective at a turbulent time. Peregrine also did particularly well on Friday after the wealth manager unveiled a R21 per share buyout offer from private equity firm Capitalworks Atlanta. And MC Mining rose strongly despite a wider first-half loss due to weaker coal prices as it pushes ahead with its Makhado hard coking coal project. More on those to follow, along with interim results from Medscheme owner AfroCentric and the high cost of restructuring that Telkom faces. Meanwhile, bank shares have been plunging too, destroying the wealth of shareholders. Why? Read no further than Ingham Analytics' notes entitled "Saxo's electrifying message" and "2020 budget - backdrop to an outrageous prediction" which explain their long-held antipathy. Follow this link to access the report. Finally, in The Week Ahead, Chris Gilmour looks back at last week's market action and previews some of the events to watch out for in the days ahead. Hopefully this week will bring some stability to the markets. Have a good one. Stephen Gunnion Managing Editor, InceConnect
Join 3340 other SMEs in South Africa who have received business loans from Funding Hub FundingHub helps all small businesses to apply in under six minutes for business finance, comparing multiple accredited finance providers and to make the most appropriate choice based on theirbusiness needs. Click here to get started. | 
