Before we get into another very busy day of SENS updates, I'm going to draw your attention to some of the other content in Ghost Mail today:
For the podcast enthusiasts, make sure you've caught both of these:
- Ghost Wrap, brought to you by Mazars and covering the recent news on Renergen, The Foschini Group, Truworths, Clicks, Lewis, Astral Foods and ArcelorMittal, all in under six minutes! Enjoy it here>>>
- Episode 109 of Magic Markets, featuring Petri Redelinguys of Herenya Capital Advisors and looking at trends in the South African economy (and perhaps some silver linings as well). You'll find it here>>> a>
Right. With that out of the way, let's look at what was another very busy day of news on the JSE.
A mega performance from Shoprite - but what about profits?
We have to start with Shoprite, which achieved fantastic sales growth in the six months to 1 January 2023. The group manages to resonate across the market, with strong growth in Checkers at one end and Usave at the other. But with an eyewatering cost of diesel for generators and significant pressure in supply chain costs, what will happen to profitability?
Vodacom also has dubious profitability prospects at the moment, without the top-line revenue growth of Shoprite to inject much confidence into investors. I'm bearish on this share price and I explain why in Ghost Bites this morning.
And aside from the news of Renergen looking to tap the US market for capital, we also had a positive day for smaller industrial companies on the JSE (Hudaco and Transpaco both released solid numbers). To cap off a busy day, we had updates from Gemfields and Sea Harvest Group as well, along with a number of quarterly updates from junior mining firms.
You'll find all the details in Ghost Bites, where I spent hours reading SENS announcements last night so that you don't have to. Get up to speed here>>>
Waiting for the Fed
Ahead of the FOMC outcome later this evening, the market has been range-bound. TreasuryONE notes that the rand is still looking weaker than its peers, no doubt thanks to our beloved Eskom.
Commodities were on the back foot yesterday, with risk-off sentiment and a stronger dollar seeing metal prices lose ground. Brent Crude fell 1% as supply increases outweighed higher demand out of China.
Have a productive Wednesday!
PS: if you are interested in mergers and acquisitions, check out the list of finalists for the Brunswick Deal of the Year 2022>>>
