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Stronger rand improves the mood amid qui... Why this sudden outbreak of bullishness...
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Stronger rand improves the mood amid quiet holiday weekTHE all-share index bounced up 6% to 5 138 in spite of a quiet week as the rand strengthened and improved hopes of an interest-rate cut. Jewish holidays at the start of the week and Heritage Day on Thursday resulted in lower volume, but some buying interest was restored. After dipping initially, gold hit $300/oz at one point and helped the all-gold index rise 16% on Friday to 1 053. JCI Gold, Western Areas and Randfontein led. Anglovaal has offered one Anglovaal share per 5.5 Avmin held in a section 311 takeout to simplify the group structure ahead of control being dismantled. Avmin added 8c to 400c and Anglovaal was R37 before the unbundling of AVI this week. Platinum miner Northam tumbled as five weeks of negotiations with Amplats came to nought. From a high of 450c when the cautionary appeared in July, Northam is now 235c. Amplats rose a net 140c to R89.40 but Impala ditched 450c to R72.50 on the granting of locus standi and res judicata to the Royal Bafokeng Nation to proceed with court action against Implats over royalty payments. Northam was not the only disappointment of the week. The public offer by Luxury Resorts did not attract the minimum subscription and it will not list. Altech has postponed the listing of its information technology arm. Bearing Man cancelled negotiations. Seldom traded Metje & Ziegler, market capitalisation R26-million, will not proceed with its rights offer, but HL&H is to issue 17 ordinaries per 100 ords or prefs at 400c; HL&H slipped 20c to 405c. In spite of better than expected results, Unihold shed 64c to 315c after announcing the purchase of Atio for a maximum of R280-million. There was no interest in MIH, which shed 30c to 970c on announcing it is to issue shares to foreign investors at not more than a 20% discount and to list on a foreign exchange. The public offer of Datacentrix at 100c was only 38% taken up, but it held up at 95c on debut. Steinhoff made a successful start after issuing shares at 400c to Unispin members and other investors. It closed at 480c. Out of the Legacy stable came Emerald, which placed shares at 60c. Only 55 000 traded, at 55c. Tightly held Klipton edged 15c higher to 500c; it issued shares at 579c to FirstCorp for the remaining 25% of Sentry Security.
Financials ticked up, notably AMB up to R31.90, Outsourcing to R27.95 and Nedbank to R92.40 although all eased ahead of the weekend: nobody wants to be long of anything. The market got a little overexcited after a month of depression but many of the weakest holders are now out. Four UBS American-style warrants were listed but there was no trade at all and wide spreads. Blame it on a poor marketing exercise, confined to tombstone details in Friday's newspapers. Masterfridge waited till the public holiday to release details of its R62-million loss. It had already been discounted: Masterfridge was 840c a year ago and 37c last week. It closed at 40c.
Julie Walker
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