Star 2023-01-20

THE JSE has a busy year ahead to continue to operate efficiently through what is likely to be another volatile 12 months for markets local and globally, and to pursue products, technology and collaborative opportunities to make capital-raising, share-trading and investment easier on the bourse. This was according to the JSE’s director of Capital Markets, Valdene Reddy, who was interviewed yesterday by Business Report about what the year holds for the JSE. The NJSE’s All-Share Index (ALSI) is up almost 9% since the beginning of the year after locally listed equities benefited from rising international equity markets. Reddy said the JSE was coming into 2023 from a previous 12 months where trading on the bourse was heavily impacted by macro-economic and global events, such as rising interest rates and inflation,…

POWER outages are muzzling competitiveness in Zimbabwe’s retail and consumer sector, forcing down margins and prompting operators to foray into acquisitions to preserve value. Zimbabwe has continued to suffer power outages – worsened by low water-levels at the Kariba Dam used by Zimbabwe and Zambia for hydro-electricity generation – that are hobbling businesses, including retailers such as OK Zimbabwe and Pick n Pay. OK Zimbabwe, the biggest retailer in the Southern African country, has announced that it has completed negotiations for the acquisition of existing Food Lovers’ supermarket outlets. It is also pursuing the expansion of the Food Lovers chain within Zimbabwe in addition to foraying into pharmaceutical space through the introduction of in-store Alowell Pharmacies. However, “incessant power blackouts” have been “driving up the cost of doing business and…

Trade union in a bid to remove all perceived bottlenecks in the way of private energy suppliers entering the fray TRADE union Solidarity has placed the blame of the ongoing power crisis in South Africa squarely at the door of the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) for allegedly issuing very few licences to private electricity generators who could plug the power deficit. Solidarity yesterday initiated legal action against Nersa in a bid to remove all perceived bottlenecks in the way of private energy suppliers. Nersa is a regulatory authority mandated to regulate the electricity, piped-gas and petroleum pipeline industries in the public interest in terms of relevant legislation. Its mandate thus includes facilitating security of supply, investment in and access to infrastructure in the energy industry, and promoting competitive…

INFLATION is expected to remain elevated in Zimbabwe this year as its local unit of exchange, the Zim- dollar, continues to devalue on both the official and unofficial markets while interest in gold coins introduced by the country to mop up excess liquidity has remained high. Yearly inflation in Zimbabwe closed 2022 at 243.7%, according to data from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The Zimdollar has been weakening, falling to $1:ZWL1 000 on the parallel market and around $1:ZWL735 on formal markets. Zimbabwean economics professor, Gift Mugano, said Zimbabwe’s elevated inflation was deepening dollarisation, blaming this on excess treasury liquidity, and requirements for exporters to surrender a portion of their earnings for conversion into local currency. Data from the central bank shows that foreign currency account payments for Zimbabwe amounted…

BHP Group, the world’s biggest mining company that is also listed on the JSE, yesterday flagged record iron ore production in the first half of the financial year, boosted by strong supply chain performance. In its quarterly activities report released yesterday, iron ore production from its mines in Western Australia came in at 132 million tons for the six-month period to December 31, a 2% increase from the previous corresponding period, while production in the three months to December rose by 3% on the previous quarter to 66.9 million tons. The Melbourne-based miner also reported strong production of copper and metallurgical coal during the half- year ended December, while production of energy coal and nickel both declined, compared to the previous corresponding period. BHP production guidance for iron ore is…

INFLATION and the cost-of-living crisis were discussed at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting of 2023, as experts said the former might have passed its peak, while the later would continue in some countries. “The people who suffer most from inflation are ordinary citizens in any country,” vice-president of the New Development Bank Leslie Maasdorp said during the ongoing WEF. Noting the rising energy and food prices in the past year, Maasdorp said the world must conquer inflation and lower the burden of high essential goods’ prices for households. Gita Gopinath, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said this week: “It (inflation and the cost-of-living crisis) is a tough topic to talk about, but I think it is a little easier to do so now than…