BLOODIED, BUT STANDING
By Evan Pickworth
One area in need of improvement at Standard Bank is the profit it is able to generate with shareholders' money. Its return on equity (ROE) - a key measure of profitability - is starting to dwindle rather ominously, with full-year r...

TIDE TO LIFT ALL SHIPS
By Evan Pickworth
A tide of investment flows is about to hit SA's shores as big players Citibank, Deutsche, JP Morgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch face off in a serious tussle for market share. And as they do, SA banks plan to grow their offshor...

ROOM TO EXPERIMENT
By Stephen Cranston
Short-term insurance was always a two-horse race between Santam and Mutual & Federal. Now, with M&F's delisting, Santam is the only significant counter in the sector. There is still an alternative in Zurich SA, but this has a tiny free...

PAIN BEFORE THE GAIN?
By Sasha Planting
The strong rand and a significant drop in commodity prices hit Sasol's first-half earnings where it hurts - on the bottom line. Cold comfort can be drawn from the fact that the company is not alone. Energy competitors like Shell and BP...

CASTING A WIDER NET
By Razina Munshi
After "coming home" to work on government infrastructure projects for a number of years, construction and engineering firm Group Five intends increasing its international exposure. Repositioning itself for a more balanced distributi...

A GLOBAL PLAY
By Sasha Planting
Aspen Pharmacare's extraordinary gain on the JSE last year reflects the rate at which the company is growing and the faith investors have in its ability to maintain earnings growth. Interim results to December 2009 are an early indication that th...

A TALE OF TWO COMPANIES
By Sasha Planting
It seems that one of the JSE's most misunderstood shares is finally becoming less of a mystery for investors . What's more, respectable interim results achieved in tough circumstances have reinforced the validity of a business model pursued sing...

JUST CALL FOR CASH
By Stafford Thomas
Cape Town-based mobile technology developer Fundamo may be powering a major portion of cross-border money remittances in only a few years. By 2012, 250 000 people will have made at least one cross-border money remittance on their cell...

IF YOU WANT TO RISK IT
By Razina Munshi
Investing in unit trusts has just become easier. In a first for SA, two local investment analysts have launched an online investing platform that will give users the choice and flexibility to arrange their own investment preferences. InvestOnline...

LOW ON STOCK AND RETURNS
By Stephen Cranston
Growthpoint CEO Norbert Sasse has expressed some regret that the distressed selling of quality property has not materialised in SA - unlike on Wall Street and in the City of London, where many prime properties have changed hands for a...

A LITTLE UNHINGED
By Matebello Motloung
Colin Human, executive chairman of Queensgate Hotels & Leisure, may say there is nothing untoward about the sudden resignation of CE Andrew Hubbard and another executive, but it's likely some shareholders don't feel the same way. Hu...

CRISIS WATCH
By Andrew McNulty
Investors' fear of crisis in financial markets and in the world economy continues to recede. In its place, there is a different fear. This is the fear of lost opportunities, of clinging too long to safe havens and earning low retur...

THE UGLY DUCKLING
By Larry Claasen
HOWDEN AFRICA 1. Cash positive 2. Revenue up

DIAMONDS & DOGS
Jamie Carr's picks of the week
Diamond - Tongaat Hulett Much as one might like to characterise the life of a sugar baron as being all polo and pink gins, Tongaat is showing that there is potential to make real loot out there in the cane fields...

INVESTOR'S NOTEBOOK
By Stephen Cranston
Remember when all the rage for investment managers was to ensure every client got the same investment returns? The great enemy was a high dispersion of returns. This was to clamp down on the rather messy situation before 1997. If you w...

INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH

The JSE industrial 25 index has been the strongest sector on the overall market since its March 2009 lows of 13 657. That outperformance is reflected in the index, which has climbed to a new high of 22 000. Recent levels exceed the ...