Tuesday, 25 August 2009

SA futures end tad weaker on profit-taking

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

SOUTH AFRICAN futures ended marginally lower today on the back of profit-taking. However, losses were pared by gains in the Dow after better than expected US consumer inflation data which boosted risk appetite.

The near-dated Alsi contract ended 80 points, or 0.35%, weaker at 22,735.
The rand was last bid at R7.79/$ from R7.77/$ when the market closed yesterday. Gold was quoted at $947.25 a troy ounce from $952.10 at the previous close.
A total of 38,245 contracts changed hands today compared with 24,253 yesterday.

Dow Jones Newswires reported that a strong reading of consumer confidence boosted investors' mood today, pushing US stocks higher.

The market rallied modestly at the opening bell on news of the reappointement of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and data showing rising home prices. That was followed by the 10 a.m. EDT release of the Conference Board's monthly confidence index.
When the local derivatives market closed, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 62 points, or 0.7%, at 9568.91, helped by gains in 24 of its 30 components. The S&P 500 was up 0.5%. The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.4%.

Today's developments came as many participants were growing wary of a possible market correction after the recent rally and worries that US economic recovery might be further off than expected.
"The data are confirming that the economy is probably already out of recession," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners in New York. "But, look, the market is still up a lot and it is going to run into resistance."

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Consumers more price sensitive

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

Johannesburg - South African consumers have become increasingly price sensitive, listed retailer Shoprite said on Tuesday.

This was as a result of job losses and the high cost of living, the group said as it released its results for the 12 months ended June 30, 2009.
Shoprite said difficult trading conditions had been exacerbated by a worsening security situation.
"Escalating crime has forced the group to greatly increase security measures to safeguard our assets and ensure customers shop in a safe environment," it said.
Nevertheless, the retailer said trading profit rose 28.1% to R2.94bn for the period under review.
Turnover was up 24.5% from R47.65bn to R59.31bn while diluted headline earnings per share rose 30.9% to 390.8 cents.
Looking ahead, Shoprite said it expected trading conditions in its new financial year to be "challenging".
"There is as yet no substantial evidence that South Africa is starting to move out of the recession and even if that were to be the case, such a recovery will take time to work through the economy as a whole."

Shoprite said it was concerned about the increasing number of unemployed people, now at nine million, and about the government's ability, "in the light of lower tax revenues", to continue supporting the poor through social grants to the extent it did at present.

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Shoprite keeps aim on Africa

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

Johannesburg - Food retailer Shoprite will continue to expand its operations in oil- and mineral-rich African countries despite the continent's infrastructural difficulties, said CEO Whitey Basson.

Shoprite's African footprint includes operations in Nigeria, Angola and Botswana. The group has constantly expanded its presence on the continent since it opened its first African store in Namibia in 1990.
However, in the year to end-June 2009 Shoprite managed to add only five new stores, while closing three others "due to the endemic lack of suitable trading space", said Basson.
He said property developers in targeted countries such as Nigeria experienced difficulties in securing funds to build shopping malls and other trading centres, which put a damper on Shoprite's expansionary plans.

In the period under review Shoprite grew its turnover from operations outside SA by a whopping 39.9% in terms of SA rand, making a 13% contribution to the group's total turnover, which was up 24.5% to R59.3bn.
However, Funeka Beja, investment analyst at Afena Capital, attributed most of this growth to SA's weak currency in the second part of the reporting period.

More affordable food in pipeline

"Although the African operations' revenue grew 39.9% in rand terms, a large portion of that number can be attributed to the rand weakening against other African currencies," she said. "The constant currency revenue growth is much lower, due to slowing space growth in the second half of the reporting period."

Among other highlights in the results is a 1.5% increase in trading space for Shoprite at the expense of rival food retailers Woolworths and Pick n Pay.
While analysts have said that high food inflation (at 15.8%) was one the main reasons for Shoprite's top line growth, Basson said food inflation started coming down in the second half of the year, culminating in 7.4% in July.
"Inflation has been expected to fall, particularly in the second half of this calendar year," said Beja. "What it means for consumers is that food will become more affordable, as long as the growth in their disposable incomes is higher than food inflation. It certainly does not mean that food prices will become cheaper."

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Monday, 24 August 2009

US can learn from SA

Monday, August 24, 2009 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

Johannesburg - South Africa displays "sound" economic policies, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Johannesburg on Friday.
She was addressing a Business Unity SA function in Sandton.
"Your banks are free of the bad loans that the US has had to deal with. We can learn a lot from your example," she said.

While the global economic crisis had created "dangerous instability" everywhere, Clinton said South Africa's underlying economic fundamentals put it in a promising position to "move forward when we come out of the crisis".
South Africa was a member of the G20 and one of the most important emerging economies in the world - it was also well-positioned to propel growth throughout Africa, she said.

Turning to Zimbabwe, Clinton said President Barack Obama took the conditions in that country personally.
"You have three to four million Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa," Clinton said.
"It's a cost to you," she said.
"In Zimbabwe services need to be delivered to the people and we'll be working closely with South Africa when it comes to Zimbabwe."
Clinton said Africa needed to tell a positive story about countries such as South Africa and Botswana - "and then we must improve conditions elsewhere in Africa".
The US Secretary of State is on an 11-day trip to the continent.

She has already visited Kenya and after South Africa she will travel to Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde.

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Mandela, Zuma plan to list gold firm

Monday, August 24, 2009 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

SOUTH African investors can expect a new resource listing, with one of the assets within the new group being the Orkney gold mines Aurora Empowerment Systems is buying from provisional liquidators for R215m.

Aurora, which counts as its directors two men of the most politically connected families in the country, will invest a further R150m in Orkney to bring production up to 250kg/month, with the first target of 200kg/month of gold set for April 2010.
Aurora is headed by anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela’s grandson Zondwa as managing dirctor and Khulubuse Zuma, the nephew of ruling president Jacob Zuma, as chairman. Michael

Hulley, who worked as Jacob Zuma’s lawyer is a non-executive director of the company.
Also on the board as an executive director is Raja Dato’ Zainal Alam Shah, a Malaysian who has a strong banking background. He is affiliated with a private equity fund called Am, which is underwriting Aurora’s resources ambitions.

The upfront funding comprises R15m cash and the balance of R200m to be raised via a rights issue underwritten by the Kuala Lumpur-based Am. The second tranche of R150m has been arranged by Am and this would mean the Malaysian fund taking an unspecified stake in the company, said Mandela.

Mandela said the plan was to shortly list a resources company focused on precious metals and diamonds on the JSE and that the Orkney assets would be housed in that vehicle. He gave no further details.
The market can expect in the identity of the proposed company, the listing time line and its assets within 10 days.

Louis Bezuidenhout, who has worked as general manager at Orkney since March this year, said the mine would break even at production of around 190kg/month of gold at a metal price of R240,000/kg.
Of the R150m, half would be spent over the first year of operations on developing the mine, including developments at the seven and four shafts, he said.
Orkney’s provisional liquidators are urging Aurora to start mining soon under their supervision. Bezuidenhout said the deeper portion of Two Shaft had deteriorated badly since the mine was put into care and maintenance in March this year. The shallower portions of the mine were in acceptable condition, he said.

The transaction is conditional on the preferred creditor, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) giving its approval. The unions have backed the proposal.
The liquidators say plans by Pamodzi Gold management to secure R626m in funding from the China Africa Development Fund will not derail the sale of Orkney nor the sale of Pamodzi's Free State assets to Harmony Gold.

There are four bidders for the remaining East Rand assets. Aurora is being persuaded by the provisional liquidators to put in a bid for those mines too, said Enver Motala, one of the liquidators.

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The bottom line in these times is: prepare to pay more...

Monday, August 24, 2009 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

Matthew Lester: Tax talk

Tax collections are going to come up far short of the 2009-10 budget of R700-billion. But who is going to have to carry the can?

We need to start considering what fundamental changes could be made to the Income Tax Act that may bring in some meaningful money without completely stuffing up the taxpayer.

First, we can exclude corporate taxes from the debate. It has taken 10 years to create something like an internationally competitive tax regime. Only complete plonkers would go back on that now. If anything, we should be accelerating the implementation of dividend tax to replace secondary tax on companies (STC). And that will cost another R5-billion in lost tax collections.

Forget about increasing VAT — we don’t need a national strike. And anything more than inflationary adjustment to sin taxes, customs and excise and the fuel levy just is not going to happen either.

Bravo Matthew! You have just excluded about two-thirds of the tax base from making any form of contribution. That’s the stark reality of tax; when times get tough it all lands on the individual taxpayer. And now, post-Polokwane, we are not about to nail the lower end of the tax spectrum, are we? So we have to go back to the fundamental principles of Rob the Rich to feed the Poor.
I think we are starting to look at increasing super tax beyond 40%. Vavi and Malema will love it. And I don’t think the Shaiks, Sexwale or Ramaphosa will raise too much opposition.
Perhaps we should look at a fundamental change to the tax brackets with the introduction of a new super-super tax bracket. So we would leave the 40% rate at somewhere around R525000. But then only implement 42% from, say, R1-million.
And then there is the great mystery of capital gains tax. Like crime rates, we still don’t really have any CGT statistics because the collections are hidden within individual tax receipts. We need to know more.

Maybe we could cut a deal on CGT and other taxes. Perhaps we could do away with death duty and donations tax and all the rocket science that goes with them.
That would not cost more than R1-billion a year. And this could easily be replaced by increasing the CGT inclusion rates to pay a bit more tax on windfalls during our lifetime.
We could live in the comfort that our estates won’t get shredded by the taxman. And SARS would benefit by getting more, earlier.

The downside is that we would have to retrench the rafts of nerds who make a living out of trust administration. Jokes aside, there would still be plenty for them to do in estate planning, they just would no longer have estate duty as the “unique selling point”.
Perhaps those who could no longer “hack it” could relaunch their careers by concentrating on small business tax compliance. That’s a bit dull, but that’s tax!

Lester is professor of taxation studies at Rhodes University, Grahamstown

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Nokia to enter PC industry with first netbook

Monday, August 24, 2009 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

HELSINKI — The world’s top cellphone maker, Nokia, said on Monday it would start to make laptops, entering a fiercely competitive, but fast-growing market.
Nokia has seen its profit margins drop over the last quarters as handset demand has slumped, and analysts have worried that entering the PC industry, where margins are traditionally razor-thin, could hurt Nokia’s profits further.

"We are fully aware what has the margin level been in the PC world. We have gone into this with our eyes wide open," Kai Oistamo, the head of Nokia’s key phone unit, told Reuters.
Its first netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G, will use Microsoft’s Windows software and Intel’s Atom processor — offering up to 12 hours of battery life, and weighing 1,25 kilograms.

Netbooks are low-cost laptops optimised for surfing the Internet and performing other basic applications. Pioneered by Asutek in 2007, other brands such as HP and Dell have also pushed out their own lines since then.
Research firm IDC expects netbook shipments this year to grow more than 127% from 2008 to over 26 million units, outperforming the overall PC market that is expected to remain flat and a phone market which is shrinking some 10%.
"Nokia will be hoping that its brand and knowledge of cellular channels will play to its strengths as it addresses this crowded, cut-throat segment," said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight.
"At present we see Nokia’s foray into the netbook market as a niche exercise in the context of its broader business."
Nokia said it would unveil detailed specifications, market availability and pricing of the device on September 2.

A source close to Nokia said the new netbook would use the upcoming Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft says a stripped-down version of Windows 7 will be introduced to netbooks the same time as its general release on October 22

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Eskom loses billions to keep lights on

Monday, August 24, 2009 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

Eskom has gone billions of rands into the red after pouring money into keeping the lights on in South Africa, the power utility will report this week, but it is confident it can raise the funds needed for its build programme this year, and will not have to turn to the government for cash.

Business Day reported on Monday that the market expects operating losses at Eskom, which reports its financial results for the year to March on Thursday, could be as high as 6 billion rand, mainly because of the huge amounts Eskom spent to rebuild its coal stockpiles and turn around the performance of its power stations in the wake of last year’s power crisis.

To the operating losses will be added several billions of rands in paper losses on embedded derivatives related to the special pricing agreements Eskom has with aluminium and ferrochrome smelters.

Eskom CE Jacob Maroga declined last week to discuss figures.

But he said Eskom’s operating losses were better than he had budgeted for in June last year, after the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) agreed to an additional tariff increase.

Losses were in the context that there had been no load shedding since last April.
The country said Eskom must keep the lights on. It is more important than the bottom line. Keeping the lights on is the most important bottom line for the country, Maroga said.
The release of the results has been delayed by about a month, but Maroga said there was nothing sinister about this.
Eskom had been waiting for final details of this year’s tariff decision from Nersa so it could include this in the going concern statements in its annual report.
It also needed to brief Cabinet ministers.
Maroga said Eskom was in talks with the government on a funding model for its build programme, and this would be finalised by the end of next month.
Choices would have to be made, but there was no "bail- out", and Eskom, which is receiving 60 billion rand of equity from the government over three years, had not asked the government for more cash, Maroga said.
Eskom is spending more than 385 billion rand over the next five years to build the new infrastructure it needs to meet demand and lessen the risk of further power crises, but it is still unclear what mix of tariff increases, borrowings and equity it will need to fund this - hence the talks on a funding model.

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Tuesday, 11 August 2009

Still on Excel 2007: Other numbers and how to enter them..

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

Fractions:

To enter fractions leave space between the whole number and the fraction, e.g 1 space 1/8.

To enter a fraction only, enter zero first, ie 01/4. If you enter 1/4 without the zero, Excel will interpret the number as a date, January 4.

If you type (100) to indicate a negative number by parentheses, Excel will display the number as -100.
The next topic will be about QUICK WAYS TO ENTER, EDIT DATA AND REVISE WORKSHEETS.

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South African money...

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

Money in South Africa

Meet the South African currency - the rand! It’s symbolized with a capital “R”, or the letters “ZAR”, and is denominated into notes - R10, R20, R50, R100 and R200 - which feature Africa’s Big Five animals, and coins - 1c, 2c, 5c, 20c, 50c, R1, R2 and R5 - which feature other African animals, the national seal, and certain indigenous plants.The R5 coin comes in two casts - with a raised, serrated circumference and without - and is often used for commemorations. Count your lucky stars if you find one featuring the face of Nelson Mandela, the Union Buildings, or a soccer player in action.Both the notes and coins increase in size as their value goes up (that is, an R10 note is shorter than an R20 note, etc.), and meanwhile the 1c and 2c coins have largely fallen out of use, with many retailers simply rounding down to the nearest R0.05.
What is the rand worth?
The rand’s value has fluctuated wildly over the past ten years. It has been as strong as R4 to the US dollar, and as weak as R16 to the dollar, but since about 2004 has been hovering in the region of R5-R8 to the dollar. Most forecasts predict that it will remain in this range at least through 2010, though some think it may strengthen a bit.Best currency converter (lists ZAR in its main table): XE.comIn April 2006, $1 US could have bought you a muffin in South Africa (but not a very fancy one); an Aussie dollar a newspaper; €1 a cup of coffee; £1 a cup of coffee and a newspaper; and ¥100 takes us back into muffin territory. For $100, you could get a case of good Shiraz (12 bottles); 100 Aussie dollars a trip for three to Robben Island; €100 flies you on a budget airline to Joburg (one-way); £100 a night in a four-star hotel; and ¥10,000 a dinner for two at a sushi bar, with sake.Most travellers to South Africa, in Your Correspondent’s experience, find its goods and services reasonably-priced, but not cheap. It’s thus important to look for bargains during your trip here, and to budget realistically ahead of time!

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Tuesday, 04 August 2009

What do you know about Excel 2007?

Tuesday, August 04, 2009 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

Here are some tips on how to use excel 2007:

When start excel- open a file called workbook( each new comes with three work sheets),
first workbook is called book 1.

Creating a new workbook:
1. Office button
2. Click new
3. In the new workbook button, click blank workbook
> Intersection of column A and row 3 is called cell A3( which is called cell reference )
> Cells are where data goes
First cell in the upper corner of the work sheet is called the active cell- any cell selected becomes an active cell out lined in black.

Enter data

You can use excel to create budget, work with taxes, record students grades or attendance, or list prodects you sell.

First start with column titles> anyone who share your work sheet can understand what the data mean, You will often want to enter row titles too.

Create a list of sales people names. The list will also have dates of sales, with their amounts.

Column titles needed- Name- Date and Amount.

Type Name in cell A1 and press TAB, Then type Date in cell B1, and type Amount in cell C1.

For dates you should use slash ( 7/16/2009) or a hyphen ( 16-July-2009) for excel to recognise either as a date.

Excel aligns text on the left side of cells, but it aligns dates on the right side of cells.

To enter time type the numbers, a space, and then a or p, ie. 9:00p. If you put in just the numbers, excel recognize a time and enters it as AM.

To enter amount, type the dollar sign($) followed by the amount.

The next post will be about how to enter other numbers, quick ways to enter data and how to edit data and revise worksheets.

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