In a history of almost 40 years,
the JSE All Share Index has never before experienced a less volatile period
than the last half dozen years. Of course individual shares and sectors (for
example Kumba Iron Ore in the past year, have seen massive swings in this time
but the Overall Index has been exceptionally pedestrian. Not since July 2009 has this index delivered
a double digit monthly return either positive or negative. It is interesting to
speculate whether the absence of large medium term moves might be a result of program
trading which is mostly about spotting and trading even minute price
discrepancies. Last month the performance of the All Share was 1.2% which is
almost exactly the average for the past 84 months. The moral of the story is that
if you seek excitement go hunting in the small and medium cap shares!
Does anyone call The Bank of
England “The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street” anymore? If so she picked up her
skirts and booted the ball firmly into the neighbour’s garden yesterday. She halved
the bank rate to a record-setting 0.25% and then announced that she intended to
deluge the nation with cash. Understandably this prompted people to sell pounds
and even our little old ront benefitted so that today one needs only R18 to buy
a British pound. This is 6 fewer than in January – a 25% strengthening. No wonder
local businesses are out shopping for offshore companies. The other side of that
coin though, is that move has somewhat dulled the lustre on the ABInBev buyout
of SA Breweries. The new bosses have also told many of the big cheeses at the
Charles Glass offices to clear their desks. That’s brave. You mess with a man’s
beer at your peril. Those SAB folk know a great deal about the local beer markets
and are fully aware that here on the eastern shores many still regard Cane Spirit
with great affection.
One of the ballot forms presented
to voters on Wednesday listed almost 30 different political parties competing
for the proportional representation vote. This suggests a number of things.
First that the barriers to entry must be rather low and that the authorities
are delighted to collect the deposits and fees, fully aware that most of the
parties will garner negligible support. Secondly it shows that the benefit of
getting a seat on a local council is considerable, what with salary, perks and
the opportunity to deliver patronage. Why, however, is it taking so long to finish
the counting? Perish the thought that some last minute “massaging” is being performed.
The certain winner in the
elections though must be the business that got the contract to supply all the
polling station furniture. Not only were ballot boxes and voting booths
delivered in flat-pack corrugated cardboard form, but there were tables and
chairs available in the same material for the returning officer and staff.
Hopefully export orders will flow in for these very clever designs.
The newspaper pull-out with all
one needs to know about the Olympics and SA’s competitors is very welcome for
those of us in charge of the TV remote. It is puzzling, however, that the
program has been sponsored by the Durban University of Technology. Isn’t this
one of the tertiary education institutions in great financial difficulties because
it can’t collect fees from a large number of students? Fees which are unchanged
from last year, thanks to a successful protest action. And also don’t they each
year have far more applicants than places? So why spend money they don’t really
have on this high profile marketing effort? Anyway thanks to DUT we see that
the woman’s beach volleyball events will be on Supersport channel 5. How cruel
is that for Bafana to draw Brazil in their opening game in Rio?
It is said that the dream of
every Springbok rugby player is to be selected for the Lions.
James
Greener
International
Beer Day 2016
