Although Friday was a rather dull day on SENS, there were some big moves on the market and there are always international stories that are worth keeping an eye on.
There was some bottom of the barrel stuff, like Luxe Holdings cancelling and reissuing its trading statement. There was still no trade in the share last week, which tells you everything about this R23m market cap shadow of what was once Taste Holdings. Luxe holds the jewellery interests which used to sit alongside Taste's food ambitions. It's a sad story.
Then we had Transnet issuing a SENS announcement about its year-end audit. There was a typo in the headline, which is reasonably ironic in an announcement about an audit. Transnet is state-owned, but there's a debt programme in place which necessitates public announcements. The delay on the audit relat es to legacy procurement matters that are being investigated.
Although the SENS list may have been short of firecrackers, investors in platinum miners were leaping for joy. There was a huge rebound in the PGMs last week, driven as always by sizable increases in price in the underlying metals.
Much like Gold Fields on a positive day for the yellow metal, Northam always seems to lead the platinum charge. It closed more than 14% up on the day, followed by Sibanye at 9.6% and Implats at 9.3%.
Moving away from platinum for a moment, PSG also saw solid price action (up 4.58%) after releasing a promising announcement the day before about growth in its net asset value. Even after Friday's rally, PSG at R80 is trading at a discount of around 27% to net asset value per share.
I must also highlight Thungela, which is down 8.5% over 7 days. The incredible run in this coal business seems to be taking a breather. Eventually, momentum plays start to run out of, well, momentum! There are still many good reasons why Thungela should continue to print cash.
The
latest episode of Magic Markets is a wonderful opportunity for you to enhance your understanding of mergers and acquisitions. When listed companies try to acquire other companies, they have the choice to pay in cash or by issuing shares to the sellers. As you might imagine, there are numerous pros and cons. In Episode 46 of Magic Markets, we explore the theory behind this along with many practical examples to help you understand what it all means.
To finish off your Monday, Chris Gilmour updates us on the global macroeconomic and political factors that are moving markets.
Good luck this week!
The Finance Ghost
