CUTTING DOWN TO THE WIRE
By Larry Claasen
If Vodacom is going through its most difficult period yet, is it not time to cut its marketing budget when the Vodacom Bulls host the Vodacom Cheetahs at the Vodacom Loftus Stadium in the final of the Currie Cup? "We will have to r...

HOLDING THEIR OWN
By Razina Munshi
Despite accusations of anti competitive behaviour, recent results show that big players in SA's construction sector haven't kept all the spoils of the infrastructure boom to themselves. Small-cap companies are holding their own. Rec...

PPC COMES CLEAN
By Razina Munshi
Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) has acted to shield itself from the wrath of the competition authorities by spilling the beans about alleged anti competitive activities in the cement sector. The cement manufacturer joined other compani...

SHARP TURN IN FORTUNES
By Stephen Cranston
In its first half, which ended just three weeks after the bottoming of the markets in March, Coronation's EPS were down 16%. Its earnings are closely tied to its assets under management, which fell 4% to R120bn. But by year-end in Sept...

RESILIENT IN RECESSION
By Sasha Planting
What a difference a few months make. In the first six months of the Spar group's financial year, food inflation ran at 16% and group turnover increased by 24,5%. But in the second half inflation dropped to an average of 9% which, along with risi...

LUCKY STAR SHINES
By Sasha Planting
In the past six months fishing company Oceana has bulked up its offshore supply and processing capacity of pilchards to meet the growing demand for its Lucky Star brand in SA. The company supplies fresh, frozen and canned seafood (pilchards, sard...

GETTING THE RECIPE RIGHT
By Larry Claasen
The folks at Milkworx have always made great ice cream but they were not so good at running the business. Milkworx recently won a supplier award from fast food chain McDonald's but this has not prevented it from incurring losses in ...

MORE REGULATION LOOMS
By Andrew McNulty
A loss of confidence in credit rating agencies because of the financial crisis has placed them under the spotlight and will lead to significant change for the industry. This could benefit the agencies and their clients, but there are ...

CRISIS WATCH
By Andrew McNulty
Japan's economy grew in the third quarter at an annualised rate of 4,8%, its fastest pace in two years and well above economists' forecasts. US retail sales in October were better than expected. Germany's return to growth is accelerati...

THE UGLY DUCKLING
By Larry Claasen
CHEMICAL SPECIALITIES 1. Cash positive 2. Revenue up

DIAMONDS & DOGS
Jamie Carr's picks of the week
Diamond - Stefanutti Stocks This has been another remarkably solid performance from the newly merged construction group, showing the benefits of its increased scale which now allows it to play with the big boys. ...

INVESTOR'S NOTEBOOK
By Stephen Cranston
It has been a year since Sanlam closed its international multimanagement business (though its domestic business carries the somewhat pretentious "International" suffix). No-one was quite sure what was going to take its place. The la...

RESOURCES TO RISE
Garth Mackenzie, Summit TV's Traders Corner
Resources shares have underperformed the broader market since the March lows while industrial and financial shares have led the recovery. The recent performance of the JSE resources sector relative to the JSE all share index is worth n...