HIGH OCTANE GROWTH
By Stephen Cranston
Is it time to take your money and run if you are invested in an emerging markets fund? Since March 9, when almost all markets - including the JSE - bottomed out, there has been a return of 101,4% in US dollars, and 72,3% for the year ...

GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
By Stephen Cranston
Life companies have a large part of their net worth invested in the JSE, and they earn fees on many products as a percentage of its market value. This means that many investors buy life insurance shares as geared plays on the market...

NO UPTICK IN THE DOWNTURN
By Larry Claasen
A slowing economy usually ushers in a period of strong performance for UCS. The software company specialises in developing programs for the retail sector and has noticed a correlation between bad times for retailers and an increase in...

RUSSIAN ROULETTE
By Matebello Motloung
Having acquired two businesses, one in Eastern Europe and one in Latin America in the past four months, media firm Naspers is ending the year by adding a third acquisition to the list. The JSE-listed company has bought online game...

USE YOUR ALLOWANCE WISELY
By Jacqui Pile
With attractive returns on post-crisis offshore equities and an increase in the foreign investment allowance from R2m to R4m, SA investors are considering the prospect of adding to their offshore investments. But tax partner at Cameron...

THE RITE MOVE
By Sasha Planting
Shoprite sells its latest acquisition as a move that will help it serve the consumer better and extend its pharmacy offering deeper into the rural areas. It probably will. But the acquisition of Transfarm, one of SA's largest pharmacy wholesaler...

CRISIS WATCH
By Andrew McNulty
The financial crisis is not yet over. The debt crunch in Dubai reminded us of that and served as a warning to global investors that new debt crises could appear in other regions, including Europe. At the same time, we have had more...

THE UGLY DUCKLING
By Larry Claasen
CALGRO M3 1. Cash positive - yes 2. Revenue up - negative ...

DIAMONDS & DOGS
Jamie Carr's picks of the week
Diamond - Gold In a week where most results announcements were about as cheery as the atmosphere around Tiger Woods's breakfast table, gold gets the gong for its astonishing resurgence. It is a sign of how co...

INVESTOR'S NOTEBOOK
By Stephen Cranston
Every so often you get companies claiming to be the first in the market when this is patently untrue. Just after the launch of Discovery Life, Old Mutual launched a clone of its product range called Greenlight, which was positioned as ...

RESOURCES SHINE

Resources shares have recently begun to outperform the Findi30 index (see graph). The early stages of the stock market recovery since the March low was led by domestic shares such as financials and industrials. In the past two weeks we h...