| Good morning Voornaam, The market can dish up some unusual moves. Dis-Chem's numbers for the year ended February 2025 looked solid, yet the share price closed 6.3% lower. Was it the net closure of baby stores, or perhaps the recent wholesale performance that spooked the market? I'm genuinely not sure.
Over at Santova, they've announced the acquisition of Seabourne Group in Europe. Focused on the eCommerce space and with an acquisition price that looks pretty reasonable to me, I like this deal.
Speaking of deals, you'll also find news on Accelerate Property Fund's R100 million rights offer, the mandatory offer circular released by Novus and Mustek, as well as Sirius Real Estate buying and selling German properties.
Other financial updates that I covered in detail include Capital Appreciation's trading statement that got the market excited, Copper 360's ugly losses, Huge Group finally starting to value its pref investments properly and Insimbi Industrial with a year to forget. I also covered an interesting management move at HCI.
The Nibbles are busy today, with the results of several smaller companies included in there.
Get the details on all these updates and the Nibbles in Ghost Bites at this
link>>>
We've had a busy few weeks on Unlock the Stock. This gives us plenty to catch up on. Make sure you're up to date by watching the Astoria Investments recording, with a new event recording coming your way tomorrow. Get it here>>>
We spend a lot of time in Ghost Mail learning about the equity market. The debt market is also incredibly important, as it connects institutional investors with borrowers who are large enough to do proper debt programmes. Ian Norden of Intengo Market brings you a new article with some great stats around the industry and an explanation of how the major roleplayers participate. Find it here>>>
The latest Magic Markets episode is a discussion with Muofhe Kwinda about his journey from being a financial analyst in the investment space to an entrepreneur with interests in mining and agriculture. As a listener to the show, he reached out with a desire to share some of his learnings from the journey. I'm glad that we accepted that offer, as it was a great show! Enjoy it here>>>
Finally, the latest piece by Dominique Olivier is the story of Red Bull's incredible business journey, which all started when an Austrian businessman sampled an energy drink in Thailand. The rest, as they say, is history. Give yourself wings here>>>
Have a great start to your week! |
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| SATRIX: A Day in the Life of a Portfolio Manager at Satrix |
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| | | Ever wondered how the nuts and bolts of ETFs work? What goes into index tracking and making sure that it is achieved at the lowest possible cost? And are all indices created equal from a complexity perspective?
Lauren Jacobs (Senior Portfolio Manager at Satrix) shows you what a day in the life of a portfolio manager looks like.
Get ready to learn and be inspired at this link>>> |
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| Intengo Market: Nuances of the South African Listed Debt Market |
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| | | South Africa’s listed debt market presents an intriguing blend of opportunities and challenges. Characterised by its unique structure, participant dynamics, and liquidity constraints, this is a space worth examining for institutional and retail investors alike. This overview is brought to you by Intengo Market. Enjoy it here>>> |
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| GHOST WRAP: April's droppers and whoppers |
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| There may have been many public holidays in April, but that didn't stop the market from reacting to the broader geopolitical turmoil. With recession concerns as a key theme, which stocks did well and which ones delivered a nasty drop? This podcast is an overview of recent big share price moves among larger local companies on the JSE, revealing some interesting trends. Ghost Wrap is brought to you by Forvis Mazars. You can find the recording and the transcript at this link>>> |
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| GHOST BITES - Making sense of SENS on the local market |
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| | | Dis-Chem released results, but the market didn't like something about them. Santova announced a clever deal. Accelerate is raising R100m. Capital Appreciation looks strong. Mustek - Novus released the offer circular. Sirius is doing deals. Copper 360, HCI, Huge Group and Insimbi also released important updates. Get the details in Ghost Bites>>> |
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| Unlock the Stock - Astoria Investments |
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| In the 53rd edition of Unlock the Stock, Astoria Investments returned to the platform to talk about the recent results and the strategic focus going forwards. The recording of the management presentation and interactive Q&A is available at this link>>> |
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| DOMINIQUE OLIVIER - Red Bull: the thing with wings |
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| | | With over two-thirds of the energy drink market in a vice grip, Red Bull isn’t just a beverage - it’s the undisputed overlord of its category. But what does any of this have to do with death-defying stunts, football teams and the youngest Formula 1 driver in history? Welcome to perhaps the best example of lifestyle marketing in the world. Give yourself wings here>>> |
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| INVESTEC PODCAST: Wine in Focus - Investing in Wine and Pairing Enjoyment with Returns |
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| | | Wine in Focus is an Investec Focus Radio five-part vodcast series hosted by Lerato Motshologane, a dealmaker at Investec for Business and founder of Discover Wines. Lerato chats to wine makers, investors, farmers and judges on everything from how to invest in wine, to innovations changing the way we farm, and South Africa's growing prominence on the international fine wine market. Get the insights in this podcast>>> |
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| International Business Snippet: |
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| Not every retailer is as resilient as Costco, the company I focused on in Friday's update. In fact, very few can get close to that level. I'm afraid that Gap is a good example, with the share price gapping 20% lower despite the company releasing an earnings beat.
Why? Tariff risks, of course. Although that's still all up in the air, Gap has indicated a potential cost to the company of between $250 million and $300 million. They are of course trying to mitigate this by procuring from somewhere other than China, but countries like Vietnam are just as problematic.
They have other issues too, like a dip in gross margin that cannot be explained at this point by tariffs.
This week in Magic Markets Premium, we've covered TJX. This is an off-price retailer that has an incredible business and perhaps the most flexible procurement strategy of them all. But will that be enough in this environment? Our subscribers find out for just R99/month, while enjoying our vast library of company reports. |
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| Magic Markets: US Downgrade and JPMorgan Views |
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| | | Magic Markets: The US credit downgrade by Moody’s wasn’t a huge surprise, as they are just playing catch-up to what other ratings agencies already did. The complacency in the market in response to the downgrade is interesting though, as it became the catalyst for us to talk about the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
In the same week, a JPMorgan investor day provided an excellent opportunity to dig into the wisdom of not just Jamie Dimon, but CFO Jeremy Barnum as well. Aside from some insights into JPMorgan’s view on the economic outlook, Barnum delivered an absolute masterclass in capital allocation.
We covered these topics here>>> |
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| Macroeconomic indicators and macro update |
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| We are back!
US index futures are trading mostly lower this morning, reflecting cautious sentiment amid ongoing trade tensions and tariff uncertainties. China has now accused the US of violating their recent trade deal with the world's largest economy.
European markets are consolidating as investors await key ECB rate decisions and US employment data, with tariff policy concerns dampening sentiment.
Asian benchmarks, including the Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng Index, are also down, influenced by mixed corporate earnings and cautious investor mood.
The US dollar index is at 99.27, down 0.05% today and over 9% lower year-to-date, signaling a general weakening against major currencies due to worries over US economic growth and inflation pressures.
The South African rand is slightly stronger against the softer dollar, though the JSE All-Share Index is expected to open lower following weaker global equity trends.
Gold prices have firmed amid President Trump's threat to double tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, alongside support from a weaker dollar.
Oil prices rebounded by more than $1 per barrel, following OPEC+’s decision to increase output in July.
This update is provided by Shaun Murison. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.
Key Indicators: USD/ZAR R17.93/$ | US 10yr 4.42% | Gold $3,343/oz | Platinum $1,051/oz | Brent Crude $62.78 |
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