Think Daily 16 May 2022

In Friday’s trading session in the local markets, the Top 40 closed the day up by 2.23%. The Resources 10 sector went up by 4.21%, the Financial 15 went up 0.92%, the Industrial 25 went up by 1.6% and lastly the South African Listed Property index was up by 1.97%. The rand traded at R16.20 against the United State Dollar, R19.81 against the Great British pound, and R16.84 against the Euro. Interesting things that happened this morning are Balwin Properties releasing the company's audited annual results, showing an increase of 16% in revenue, and Vodacom releasing the company's annual reports with the group's revenue up by 4.5%. Finally, Astral Foods has reported the company's interim results with an increase in revenue by 26%. 


Figure 1: Northam Platinum intraday share price action 
 

On the commodities front, the Brent Crude oil is trading at $110.03 a barrel and WTI Crude oil is traded at $109.34 a barrel. Gold Spot price is currently trading at $1806.23. Platinum Spot is now trading at $941 and lastly, Palladium Spot price is at $1968.50. European diplomats said on Friday the EU still aims to agree to a phased embargo on Russian oil this month despite pushback from certain member countries, rejecting suggestions of a delay or watering down of proposals. An OPEC monthly report also showed output in April rose by 153,000 barrels per day, lagging the 254,000 bdp rise that the group allowed under a deal. 
 

 Across the globe, the S&P 500 closed the day up 2.39%, Dow Jones closed up 1.47% and the Nasdaq had a 3.7% climb. The FTSE 100 closed up 2.55% and the DAX was up 2.1% and CAC40 was down 2.52%. In the Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 is currently up 0.45% and the Hang Seng is currently up 0.14%. In the United States,  the retail earnings season will kick off this week with large firms set to report results for the first quarter, including Walmart, Target and Home Depot.