New Record on the S&P
Seven months ago on 20th September 2019, the S&P made a new record high at 2930 – and from that level began a correction. Corrections are completely normal and even healthy events which occur regularly during the course of a bull trend. This ten-year bull trend began on 6th and 7th of March 2009 when the S&P made an intra-day low of 666.79 on 6th and then made its lowest
Mathunjwa Backs Down
On 16th January this year we ran an article in which we suggested that the confrontation between AMCU and Sibanye was a microcosm of the inevitable post-election battle between the government and the union movement. We concluded that article with the following: “To us it looks as though Mathunjwa is in a very difficult position. He has
Inflation
One of the outstanding achievements of the ANC since it took office in 1994 has been to maintain the relative integrity of the currency. The currency of a country is like the shares of a listed company. If a listed company is well-managed and expected to be profitable then its shares will rise in the market. If a country is perceived to be well-managed and to have an economy that is growing, its currency will strengthen against
Institutional Blindness
The Business Day reported on 10th April 2019 on the Investment Forum in Sandton where several asset managers talked about the major share collapses of the past three years – most notably Steinhoff, EOH and Tiger Brands. The big institutions and major fund managers (like Alan
Unbundling
From time to time, listed companies may take the decision to “unbundle†one of their subsidiaries or strategic investments to their existing shareholders. This means that they decide to give their shares in that subsidiary (or strategic investment) to their shareholders in direct proportion to the number of shares which the shareholders are holding on a specific date. Their reasons for doing this are varied, but