Trading Day – Momentum reports massive growth in earnings. 

Momentum Metropolitan reports massive growth in earnings. 

Growthpoint Properties reports a healthy increase in earnings. 

Here is the biggest news of the day.

• Momentum Metropolitan reports massive growth in earnings. Earnings per share (EPS) increased more than 8-fold, growing from R0.31 to R2.61. The company declared a final dividend of R0.65 per share. Momentum commenced a share repurchase program on 10 August and has since bought back 23 million shares for R382 million. This will translate to a gain in the embedded value of around R0.20 per share. The board has approved a total of R750 million for share repurchases but anticipates increasing this over the next two years.
• Growthpoint Properties reports a healthy increase in earnings. Headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased 24% to R2.11. Despite a slight 0.6% decrease in total revenue to R13.05 billion, Group vacancies decreased from 10.3% to 8.5%. SA REIT net asset value (NAV) per share increased 6.7% to R21.58, while funds from operations (FFO) per share increased 13.7% to R1.56. The company declared a final dividend of R0.67 per share.
• Pan African Resources’ earnings remain flat. Earnings per share (EPS) came in at US 3.90 cents, almost identical to last year. The company declared a final dividend of R0.18 per share.
• French media company Groupe Canal+ further increases its stake in Multichoice. The company has been steadily buying up shares in Multichoice for close to a year. With the most recent announcement, Group Canal+’s stake in Multichoice exceeded the 26% mark.
• Cell C’s financial results were postponed again. The results for both the financial year ended December 2021 as well as interim results for the period ended June 2022 were due to be released today. However, due to the CEO, Douglas Craigie Stevenson, being diagnosed with an upper respiratory tract infection, the results announcement has been postponed.
• Markets tumble on US inflation report, while the dollar strengthens on near certain likelihood of 75 basis points rate hike. Wall Street saw its biggest single-day decline in 2 years, with the S&P 500 closing 4.3% lower, while Asian markets continued the sell-off, with the MSCI Asia-Pacific index falling 2.1%. The dollar strengthened, with the possibility of a 75 basis point Fed rate hike next week becoming a near certainty. The local currency weakened from R17.00 / $ to R17.40 / $. Core CPI, which strips out the more volatile food and energy components and is more closely watched by the Fed, rose 0.6% from July and 6.3% from a year ago, exceeding last month’s readings of 0.3% and 5.9% by far.