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The 5 o' Clock Shadow with Schalk Louw · Strictly Business

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You're listening to Strictly Business Podcast with Lindsay Williams.
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The JSC has closed its doors for another day, so it's time for the five o'clock
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shadow.
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And as always on a Wednesday, I speak to Skulk Lowe, Portfolio Manager at PSG
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Wealth, Old Oak Division in Cape Town.
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Skulk, you weren't around last week because of a strategy session, and we'll
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talk about that later on briefly.
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But since we last spoke, there's been state of the nation.
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It's been State of the Union in the United States of America.
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And there's been the budget this afternoon in South Africa.
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So much going on.
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Please tell me about the budget.
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Well,
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let's start off by saying how unbelievably things can change in
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one year.
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I mean, we just go, let's talk about the budget.
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I mean, when we turned the clock back one year ago, I think you and I had two or
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three times where we had to say,
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let's talk about the budget.
1:01
Wait.
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We can't yet.
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They can't get the budget over the line.
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It seems like a long time ago.
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Yes, exactly.
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It was cancelled, wasn't it?
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And that didn't exactly engender a lot of confidence in the international community.
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No, no, no, no.
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I mean, to put that in perspective, I mean, when you look at, let's just take
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our long bond rate.
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You can go and look at it over the past, let's call it 20 years.
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There's a few blips.
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we had the world financial crisis.
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That was a massive blip.
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you know, shot up.
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And that was an emerging market, not just an emerging market thing, but it's a world
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thing.
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Then we had the Nene gate.
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We had, ah, I can continue.
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I mean, we had the downgrade to junk status.
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That was March 2020.
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We had the gray listing.
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That was a kick up.
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And we tend to forget that a little bit more than a year ago, we had that kick up.
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I think.
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Long bond rates, we've been very close to 11%.
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Here we're sitting today.
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I can tell you exactly where they were on the day after Liberation Day, because that
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was in the evening.
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And then we opened up in the morning, went to 11.10% to 11.15%, because it was thinly
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traded.
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Nobody knew what button to press at the time.
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And that was the South African 10-year bond.
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And look at the thing now.
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It's extraordinary.
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Yeah, but there was some augmentation.
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That was sort of a...
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build up to deliberation day because we couldn't get the budget over the line and
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the rant weakened because everybody thought
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that's the end of GNU.
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GNU is done.
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It's history.
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It's not working.
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And we had the rant weakening.
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We had the yields shot up.
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Then eventually we had the very lukewarm budget speech.
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We didn't have that original VAT hikes and those kind of things.
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But it was sort of a lukewarm.
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It was uh Not a very positive one.
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You said it.
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We had Liberation Day, and yields went up over 11%.
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Got very, very close to that 20% to the dollar mark again.
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And here we're sitting.
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And the all share was below 100,000, Skunk.
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There we go.
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There we go.
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And as I look at my screen now, you've got to put that into context, because people
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that have been away for a while and are suddenly listening to us for the first
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time.
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Yes, it was below 100,000, and Skunk will give us exactly where it was budget day
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last year.
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But I, for now, will tell you exactly where it is at the moment.
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It's nearly 127,000 for the all-share index of the JSC.
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And that's one and a quarter percent up just today.
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It doesn't stop.
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The round is 1588.
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Where was the round a year ago?
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Skalk is also going to show us because he's got seven screens in front of him.
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And he fiddles around and he'll be able to tell us.
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But anyway.
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I'm fiddling already, man.
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I'm fiddling already.
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So the JSC all-share.
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That was trading at 87,800 exactly a year ago.
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So it's 30,000 points higher.
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Yeah.
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No, 40,000 points higher.
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40,000 because remember it's more than
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40% higher.
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And if we look at the rant, look at the rant.
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I mean, this is actually crazy.
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Liberation Day.
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Well, we'll get to Liberation Day.
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Exactly a year ago, the rant was trading.
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I feel I need to give a drum roll.
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Do I have to sit down for this one?
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18 Rand, 37.
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Then Liberation Day happened, and it went, well,
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on that specific day, went, oh, closed at 19 Rand, 40.
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So from 1940 to 1588.
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I mean, okay, Liberation Day, well, it's less than a year, because Liberation Day
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was the first week in April.
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of course, April the 2nd it was, because he didn't want it to be on April the 1st,
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for obvious reasons.
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It's extraordinary.
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That's how quickly things go.
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But you know, I've often had this conversation.
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And I've often had conversations stating that the African economy is a very,
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very usually when people invest in gold mines, that's sort of my reference point.
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Why somebody would invest in one gold mine rather than another is sometimes a gearing
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effect.
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How are they...
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you know sell their gold forward uh you know what's the gearing effect um and so
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africa is that type of thing
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i think africa is a scenario we've seen it in in the mid 2000s where things really
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don't look good for
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for the economy don't look for good for the country and then just a few small
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things happen and and and past
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12 months we've often said that small things is usually big things because we're
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the largest producer of platinum in the world with the second
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largest palladium Radis Rhodium with its eighth largest producer of gold.
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You know, when you see happening what happened,
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that suddenly have a massive effect on our current account.
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Suddenly these mines, and we've seen some of them reported today, suddenly these
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mines, I mean, Volterra,
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look at that result.
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I mean, that's just cruel.
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Well, we'll look at those in a moment when we get to the Stock Exchange News Service.
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We will look at them.
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I haven't looked at the budget today.
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I've got something called Budget Indifference.
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I go into a coma on Budget Day and I lie down with slices of cucumber over my
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eyes and I forget about it.
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Because I just need to read what happens and look at what happens in the markets to
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know what happened.
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This time last year, absolutely nothing happened.
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This year, a 13.5 basis point fall in yield on the South African 10-year.
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That's the first thing I look at, 7.805%.
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It's a 1.7% fall in the yield bond prices.
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soaring international and local investors doing well the all-share index doing
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fantastically well but you've brought in the the
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diggers factor here uh people that dig things out of the ground have come out
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with numbers you mentioned valteria we'll talk about that later that's
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boosting the all-share index but goodness me he must have had a smile on his face
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that deliverer of the budget today no
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it was it was one of the better budgets in many many years because it was it was
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really good news all around.
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And I think it's not just in terms of, but let's look at the fiscal position.
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I mean, when you look at, I think when we look at it in the
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2025, which is now pretty much two years ago already,
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when you look at that medium term budget, they were talking about the 2028,
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2029, there should be a budget deficit of around 9%. So things were fairly bleak and
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not looking good.
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Today, when you look at the consolidated budget deficit, we're looking at a 5%,
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about 4%
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deficit.
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Well, that's 4% of GDP for 2026.
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But now they expect it to narrow to 3.1% by 2028,
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2029.
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From, let's call it a year and a half ago, it was 9% of, the deficit should have been
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9% of GDP.
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Now we're looking at 3.1%.
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to That's massive.
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Total debt to GDP.
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I remember when most economists globally were saying,
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we see what you're talking about, aiming for these,
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let's call it 80% by 2026,
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2027.
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But hell no, we see you surpass or getting close to that 100% mark as well.
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Well, total debt to GDP is down to 77.3%.
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77.3% A lot of countries would die for that kind of number.
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I know, I know.
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And that is really, really good.
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That's the meat.
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That's for South Africa.
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Yes, I think our total taxpayer, the base is still too small,
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too small a percentage of the country, look after the rest of the country.
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But the one thing that the mid-2000s has taught me as well is Thanks.
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You know, you need, how does a song go?
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Your neck bone is connected to the shoulder bone, the shoulder bone to the
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backbone.
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Showing your age.
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You're showing your age.
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And the type of music you like as well, Skull.
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Both of which we can skirt over at the moment.
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But anyway, what are you talking about?
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Them bones, Them bones.
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That was the song.
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But anyways, I mean, what I'm getting to is eventually.
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We had a similar scenario in that mid-2000s.
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You often bring up the CRB Commodity Index into play.
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I did some work last week where I look at, just look at the CRB Commodity Index.
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When that improved, there's sort of a...
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massive, massive correlation with GDP growth on the growth of the CRB, or just
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commodities in general.
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But I'll use the CRB because you love it as well.
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Also, when you take the CRB commodity index and as it improves, you always see
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an improvement in the RAN.
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So then my question is, to all the people that's worried,
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if you're worried and say we're nearing the end of this commodity type of cycle,
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well,
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then maybe you should be a bit worried.
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I don't think we're there yet.
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We're not trading at the highs that we've been in 2008 yet.
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And it's been predominantly driven by some of these precious metals.
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The rest of the commodities haven't really followed suit yet.
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So when that happened, naturally, that won't be good for inflation.
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But over that same period, mid-2000s,
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we had an unemployment rate in 2003 of 31%,
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very similar to the levels that we're currently seeing.
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But by 2009 or 2008, we'll be sitting with an unemployment rate of 21%.
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And that's where I say you connect the dots.
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Oh, I see.
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Where things start becoming and improving.
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So, yes, the budget speech today.
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I'm just going to run it very quickly.
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Very quickly.
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I would say this is for individuals because we continue to look at corporates
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and those kind of things.
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It's just going to get way too long.
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Very good.
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Very, very good for individuals.
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We've seen the tax-free investment plans.
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That was a nice one.
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Sort of expect it.
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I think there was a lot of rumors that the annual 36,000 rand should be increased.
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There was talks, people guessed or sort of bet on a 40,000 rand.
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Now it's been pushed up to 46,000 rand.
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I thought that was a positive sign to promote savings within South Africa.
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We've had no bracket creep, so to speak, this year.
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Remember, for the past three years, they didn't adjust the tax rates,
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but they kept the brackets unchanged.
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So that inflationary effect, well, there was no inflationary effect.
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This year, they did adjust to inflation, so that went up.
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I think that is positive.
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When you look at your...
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your annual deduction for your retirement funds.
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Now, remember, it's usually the maximum of 27.5%
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or 350,000, whatever is the highest.
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That's typically for your retirement, your annuity, your provident fund, those type
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of things.
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That was, the maximum was always set at 350,000.
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That's been increased to 430,000.
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Again, a really, really positive sign and sort of promoting.
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promoting the the africans to to to to save um the the the well let's call it the
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the the annual exclusion for capital um gains or losses that's always been 40 000
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rent i mean this
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350 000 and 40 000 has been these levels for
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i might say as long as i can remember but for a very very long time they've adjusted
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this from forty thousand to fifty thousand
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right just meaning that for the listeners out there don't understand this usually
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when you make a
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capital it's called a profit
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um you usually take your profit and let's say it is below 40 000 rand for that
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specific financial year then
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you will pay no capital gains tax anything above 40 000 now they've they've they've
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increased that from 40 000 rand to
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50 000 and here's a biggie Yeah,
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that's not a lot of money in most people's lives that are in the business of making
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money through trading or through
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buying and selling assets.
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But still, a step in the right direction, Scott.
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So you've got a biggie coming up.
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The biggie to me is also one that's been unchanged.
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That's the exclusion of capital gain or loss of the disposal of your primary
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residence.
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Now, Lindsay, you will know this has been 2 million Rand for many, many, many years.
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And the property market has got ahead of itself compared to that, of course.
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Yeah.
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And they didn't just kick it up with, I don't know, 200,000 rand.
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They kicked it up from 2 million rand to 3 million rand.
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So I thought that was also a very, very positive sign.
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So I would say that to me was the most important sort of changes within the
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budget speech for today.
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Oh, yeah, and then the tax-free donations.
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That went up from...
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From 100,000 rent to 150,000 rent.
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Very nice.
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So good news all round.
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You have to say a little bit about corporates.
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Maybe take the first one or two points that you found to be really positive for
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the South African corporate world.
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Oh, what's it?
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Companies, the minimum, let's call it the minimum effective tax rate.
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I think that's maybe the one I'm going to run through.
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I mean, trust, that changed at, it's unchanged at 36%.
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Individuals, still 18% and special trust, 18%.
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And then companies, 21.6%.
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So, yeah, I don't think it's been when I look at the broader let's call it budget,
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there's more money back to individuals this year.
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And I thought that was really good.
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Just before we get on to the results coming out today, has that had a positive
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effect on other sectors?
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For example, the retailers,
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because if it's a consumer-friendly or rather a people-friendly budget,
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which it sounds as though it is, has that had a knock-on effect on certain sectors
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on the JSC that are...
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linked to that type of person or that type of spending activity?
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It was an extremely interesting day on the JS, and we'll chat about that.
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But to answer your question fairly shortly and bluntly, no.
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It's been a crazy day because it's been predominantly driven by resources.
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But if you take the resources out of the market today, it's been a pretty negative
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day.
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not really okay well we'll come to that and let's have a look now never mind why
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because we've seen this
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big improvement in the currency because I think that the market looked at this and
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said well this was a positive budget and it'll be
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positive you know for South Africa and usually
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when you see that your currency is the share price for your country and we've
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seen that improvement in the currency today but that wasn't actually good for
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the market that was interesting Okay, well,
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maybe that'll unwind tomorrow if people got so excited about certain things.
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There's been so many results recently.
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I mean, just look at last night after the market closed, you had BidCore coming out.
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Also, no, that was it.
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BidCore after the market closed last night.
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Today, being punished by 2.5%.
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This morning, we've had Blue Label, ACI, Motus, Mustek.
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And then if you go up to about 9 o'clock, those are the 7 o'clock.
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7 o'clock was 9 o'clock.
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It's a small company here by the name of, come on, Valtteri Platinum Limited.
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Full year results announcement for the year ended 31st of December 2025.
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You look along the right hand side, it gives you the share price and the
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percentage share price move on the day.
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10.02% in the green, Skulk.
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Must have been good numbers.
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Yeah, that's the second.
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Let's call it, if you look at your top performers and worst performers, which
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you'll read us a little bit later.
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I will do.
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But that was one of the top performers, position number two for today.
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Yeah, Volterra, what a full year.
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Printing money?
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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When you sit in a position where you start giving larger dividends.
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And now start giving special dividends as well.
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And just to put it in perspective, when you look at the total dividend of 45 rand
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a share, because for the listeners that didn't read this update,
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it was a 25 rand base dividend that was announced, but also a
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20 rand special dividend.
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That's 45 rand.
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That's pretty much 71% of the headline earnings that they're paying out.
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It's quite a good thing.
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I mean, I spoke to somebody called Wayne McCurry.
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over the last few years before he retired, had been investing in the PGM companies.
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And it had a pretty rotten time, let's face it.
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I mean, as all PGM investors did.
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And I'm so pleased that they're being rewarded now because the cyclicality of
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resources means you go through the
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worst of times and then you go through the best of times.
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And these are the best of times.
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It's just a question of how long they'll last and how well these companies will
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manage it.
19:08
Will they go out and be expansive and shine by.
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obscure Canadian mines or northern-based mines in Finland or something like
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that?
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Or will they just hunker down, get on with it, with their beautiful resources that
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they've got, as Donald Trump would say,
19:27
and keep churning out the money, paying the dividends, and everyone's happy?
19:30
I hope they're responsible with it.
19:33
Yeah, that's an important point because you're 100% right.
19:39
Again, we were talking about how things can change.
19:44
in one year.
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And we refer to the budget speeds.
19:47
But I mean, I think the team at Volterra is looking at it and saying, wait a
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minute, Scott, that's not just the budget, that's us.
19:56
When you turn the clock back, February last year, I mean, we're talking about
20:01
taking the clock back February last year,
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what was the currency and what was this, what was that?
20:05
When you look at the platinum price exactly a year ago, 25 of February, 2025.
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The platinum price closed that day, it's $970 per ounce.
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Today, it's currently trading close to $2,300 per ounce.
20:22
So that's crazy.
20:24
And why is this significant?
20:26
And they mentioned in their trading update, their financial report,
20:32
is this earnings is really supported by this 22%
20:37
increase in the RAND PGM basket.
20:40
price for their products.
20:44
But also, they mentioned a five billion rand cost saving.
20:51
Why?
20:52
Because remember, as mentioned, if you turn the clock back one year ago, they
20:57
were sitting worried.
20:59
I mean, they're sitting with a $900 platinum price.
21:02
They worried.
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I mean, because if you take the platinum and palladium and brodium, those prices
21:10
for that previous year or two.
21:12
It flatlined.
21:14
It stayed at these $900 levels.
21:15
And when you look at the all-insustainable cost, the all-insustainable cost for this,
21:21
let's call it this year, was around,
21:25
let's call it $987 per ounce.
21:31
Then when the platinum price is trading at
21:34
$970, $980 per ounce, you're worried.
21:39
You go back.
21:40
And you say you cut any expense we don't need.
21:43
You switch the light off when you leave the room.
21:46
You make sure the taps are closed.
21:49
You reuse a spade five times.
21:52
But hell, we need to save some cost.
21:56
And then, you know, the underlying commodity prices moved the way it did.
22:00
So you should say you get a perfect storm.
22:04
But Valterra, they add the inverse.
22:05
They add the… Absolutely perfect environment where they came off the stress
22:11
levels, they did cost cuttings,
22:13
and then bang.
22:15
Yeah, it's a positive sign.
22:17
I love the fact that they're handing back 71% of the headline earnings back to
22:21
shareholders.
22:21
It means that they're not seeing a lot of opportunities at these current levels to
22:27
go and buy other companies.
22:29
And rather than doing that, give the money back to the shareholders.
22:30
They'll find something to go and buy.
22:32
Yes, indeed.
22:32
And on that note of being responsible with windfalls.
22:36
Let's hope that the Treasury is responsible with its windfall as well.
22:39
The budget today, I think pretty conservative, but they're giving enough to
22:45
keep us interested.
22:47
You sound very excited.
22:49
But also,
22:51
the whole country's got to take advantage of the Valterra-style bonanza that we're
22:57
having at the moment.
22:59
I mean, look, they've got three major mining complexes in South Africa, in the
23:03
Bushveld, right?
23:05
I mean, let's say the Rustenburg area.
23:07
We're talking about special dividends and dividends, but what about the corner shop
23:10
owner?
23:11
There's a lot of people now with a lot more money in their pocket and they're
23:17
working more shifts and maybe people are being employed as well.
23:19
That has a knock-on effect.
23:20
It's a fantastic effect as well and you've got to take advantage of it.
23:23
The local municipality must do something about it and with the windfall taxes and
23:27
everything,
23:27
fix the roads and the water and everything.
23:31
So make sure that...
23:35
The new windfall, as I said, is used judiciously.
23:39
Yeah, I totally agree.
23:40
You've got the velocity of money.
23:42
How many times that money goes through the economy?
23:45
If you don't have money, money doesn't go through the economy.
23:47
But when things tend to go well and there's more money, that money goes.
23:51
And as you mentioned, the guys working at Valterra, they go to the local shops,
23:57
Sotfasa shops.
23:59
I mean, we've seen the likes of Supergroup yesterday and Motus today.
24:03
Suddenly they go and say, well, maybe now I can afford to go and buy that new car.
24:10
And that's the knock-on effect.
24:11
And that's what I mentioned earlier.
24:12
South Africa is such a finely tuned economy that small changes could have
24:19
quite a
24:21
large effect on our economy.
24:21
I still think when I look at the IMFs and also the World Bank's outlook,
24:27
they've still got South Africa on a 1.5% growth rate for 2026.
24:33
It's very early in the year and maybe very dangerous.
24:38
I don't want to give it the commentator's curse, but I can already see, I think
24:42
they're going to be on the short side.
24:44
I think they're going to be on the lower side and looking at how things are
24:48
progressing.
24:50
Don't be surprised if that's beaten quite handsomely this year.
24:52
We haven't got time for the State of the Union address, but I'll summarize it.
24:56
Donald Trump is the greatest president in the history of the world.
25:00
The United States economy is doing better than it's ever done.
25:03
It's the greatest economic turnaround in the world.
25:05
Gas prices were $6 a gallon under Biden.
25:09
No, they weren't.
25:09
They were just above $5 a barrel.
25:11
Gas prices now in some places, including Iowa, are $1.85 a gallon.
25:15
No, they're not.
25:17
The lowest you can find in Iowa anywhere on the internet or with AI is $2.37.
25:23
And he said he went to see these places.
25:24
No, he didn't.
25:25
He was behind the bulletproof limousine.
25:28
So he's lying again.
25:29
So it was the normal state of the union address, Skulk.
25:34
And the only thing different about it was it was the longest in history, one hour
25:39
and 37 minutes.
25:41
I got up at three o'clock in the morning, four o'clock in the morning your time.
25:44
I lay down on the sofa to watch this, and at quarter past five I woke up and I
25:49
didn't know where I was.
25:51
I nodded off.
25:52
I nodded off after he brought on the U.S.
25:55
men's hockey team who were all biting their gold medals, and everyone was
26:01
singing USA,
26:03
I turned off literally myself.
26:06
Scott, the only thing I want to talk about next week is the dislocation in the tech
26:11
market, because I was looking at a few graphs.
26:13
And I looked at Microsoft, bear market.
26:15
I looked at IBM, bear market.
26:16
I looked at Tesla on the verge of being in a technical bear market, which is 20% from
26:22
the high to where it's trading now.
26:24
Nearly there.
26:26
And there's a lot of sort of, if you can call them,
26:28
old school tech stocks that are now being shunted aside because AI is potentially
26:33
eating their lunch,
26:35
as they say.
26:37
Very, very interesting.
26:39
So if you're a tech investor, you don't just buy tech.
26:41
You have to buy proper tech.
26:43
And we'll see if… the new leading it is going to continue to be leading it because
26:45
their results out
26:47
later tonight skulk are you going to be watching those
26:49
quite closely yeah no no definitely i think that's this is going to be a massive
26:55
one few things that i'm going to look at
26:57
i'm definitely going to look at you know did they beat or not didn't beat i mean
27:02
that's the first thing but i
27:04
think the most important thing i'm going to be looking at in the
27:04
video is is the inventories um that was one that with a with a previous quarter
27:10
update
27:12
which was quite interesting.
27:14
It seemed like they had more stock.
27:15
They were holding more stock than the market really expected.
27:19
And I think this is sort of going to indicate,
27:22
are they holding back stock to try to drive up prices?
27:27
Is there some Chinese accounting happening here?
27:31
Yeah, you mentioned it.
27:32
I mean, it's a big conglomerate, Microsoft.
27:36
Today, trading at levels, yes, we've got a bit of a bounce, but When you look at
27:42
Microsoft,
27:42
it's now trading at levels last seen in 2024.
27:46
Yeah, we had a little bit of a blip last year with Liberation Day, but that was
27:50
short-lived.
27:52
We're now trading at levels that Microsoft's last traded in January
27:55
2024.
27:58
Yes.
27:59
So, interesting.
27:59
As I say, bear markets, it could be presenting itself as a great opportunity,
28:05
still a fantastic company.
28:07
But is the traditional software business now being usurped by?
28:09
developments in AI.
28:11
We don't know yet, but that's the rumor out there.
28:13
I know one particular fund manager, who's of course a holder of Microsoft, says, no,
28:18
nonsense, and this is why.
28:20
And I'll be having that podcast quite soon.
28:22
But anyway, let's have a look at some market values now, and start with the
28:27
mighty RONT.
28:27
1589, the dollar round, very good indeed.
28:30
That's a half a percent fall for the US dollar.
28:34
Euro dollar is 117.90.
28:38
So let's call it British pound against the round, though.
28:40
Twenty one fifty euro round is eighteen seventy four,
28:44
which is a third of a percent fall for the euro onto the gold price.
28:47
Now, of course, let's have a look at that.
28:50
You know, we've gone through a whole podcast without mentioning gold, Skunk.
28:55
It's not too late.
28:56
It's not over yet.
28:57
I knew it.
28:59
Fifty one eighty the gold price.
29:02
It's I think if this is maybe a bit slow.
29:04
But anyway, I've got fifty one eighty the spot price.
29:06
which is $32 up, two-thirds of a percent.
29:10
Platinum is up 5.4%.
29:13
Sorry, that was a nervous laugh.
29:15
$23.05.
29:17
So Veltere are getting the double whammy today.
29:20
It's got the great results, and it's got surging metal prices.
29:23
Palladium up 9.2%. Can you, Adam and Evett?
29:27
$18.61, $156.50 to the good.
29:32
Rhodium, I don't know, but Skalk is going to look on his screen now.
29:35
and tell me while I'm rattling through another couple of commodity prices on my
29:41
CRB index screen.
29:43
Notably, the energy complex where Brent crude oil is down very slightly, $70.71,
29:47
and
29:49
West Texas crude is $65.42, which is down a third of a percent.
29:53
Copper is $5.95 and a bit, which is up
29:58
0.4% in New York.
30:00
What else have we got going here?
30:02
I mentioned the South African bond market earlier on.
30:04
7.805%, the close, massive move, 13.5 basis points down for the yield.
30:10
U.S.
30:11
10-year is 4.05%.
30:13
It wasn't that long ago it was 4.30%, and I was barking on about the U.S. bond
30:19
yields being one of my trades of the year.
30:21
In other words, the bond yields would rise, in my opinion.
30:23
They're stuck in a range between just about 4% to 4.30%, right at the bottom.
30:29
and testing.
30:30
testing my patience actually.
30:31
S&P 500.
30:33
March futures are 6935, which is up half a percent.
30:38
US, and I've done that one, Bitcoin price.
30:41
67,200, which is up 5%.
30:45
It did go below 63,000 yesterday.
30:48
I was watching it.
30:49
And yeah, that's my numbers.
30:51
Did you get that rhodium price, Skulk?
30:53
Yeah, it's up.
30:54
It's $11,850 per ounce.
30:57
It's also up 1.3%.
30:59
Also crazy how this, how it's actually just suddenly moved from these.
31:03
If you look at one year ago, rhodium.
31:06
Because remember, I don't have the graph in front of me,
31:10
but we went to something like $30,000 or $40,000 per ounce five, six years ago,
31:17
and then went all the way down to the $4,000, $5,000 mark.
31:22
That's where we were trading a year ago, $4,000-something dollars per ounce.
31:27
Today, trading more than double that, close to triple that, $11,850.
31:32
Fantastic.
31:33
Let's have a look at the JSC now.
31:34
Volterra, top of the list, 10.3% higher.
31:37
African Rainbow Minerals up 5.4%.
31:40
Northern up 5%.
31:41
Goldfields up 5%.
31:42
Impala Platinum 4.7% to the good.
31:45
On the downside, tell me about SPAR.
31:48
Why is it down 10%?
31:49
Is that an ex-diff?
31:51
No, no, no.
31:52
I wish it was an ex-diff.
31:53
Was that results?
31:55
No, I remember they've been in the news lately with the CEO just stepping down.
32:03
sort of out of the blue and it's just been yeah it's just been under pressure,
32:09
under pressure constant pressure I liked spa when I was in South Africa I always
32:16
liked to go to the spa well my
32:18
local spa was very well run very friendly chap and everything
32:19
and the quality of the food was good but clearly investors don't care about the
32:25
quality of the food today Richemont down
32:27
4.4% Motus down 4.3% after their numbers Sassl down 4.1% you
32:31
But it's still 137 Rand a share or just below.
32:34
Goodness me.
32:35
The good, cool, skulk low.
32:37
Mondi down 4%.
32:40
Anything outside of those?
32:43
Yeah, maybe just a quick mention on Blue Label.
32:48
Yes, they came out this morning, didn't they?
32:54
Yeah, it was an interesting one.
32:56
I'm not going to go in too deep.
32:58
They've got a very interesting venture, and listeners should go and read up on
33:04
their new blue energy trading unit.
33:06
But basically it just comes down to they've seen a massive gap where they feel
33:11
the amount of
33:13
electricity ESCOM is selling or providing to the municipalities are adequate.
33:17
The problem is the municipalities are not getting paid for the electricity they're
33:23
distributing.
33:25
And they've got a very interesting new venture is how they're going to help these
33:27
municipalities.
33:29
getting in the money and how they're going to enrich themselves.
33:31
We're talking about massive, massive, they're talking about, you know,
33:36
close to an extra 19 billion rand in revenue that these municipalities should
33:42
be recovering, 40%.
33:44
And they've got a new product that's going to help them,
33:47
help their shareholders as well as the municipalities.
33:51
And that helped the share price naturally being the top performer for today, just
33:57
over 12% for today.
33:59
Very good indeed.
34:01
Skalk, you'll now give us the indices before we close this.
34:02
Very interesting chat.
34:02
The JSE today closed at 120 up.
34:08
We just talked about it earlier.
34:10
But there goes my screen.
34:12
Oh, yeah, it's back.
34:13
126,742 points.
34:19
That's up 1.3% for today.
34:22
JSE top 40, 118,703 points.
34:26
Also up.
34:27
1.47%.
34:29
That was naturally driven by resources, up 4.82%. Industrials, that was down
34:36
0.14%. Financials, interesting, in a stronger RAND environment, actually down
34:43
0.98%.
34:45
And even the asset property index, that was down 1% for today.
34:46
Very good indeed.
34:47
I was going to close it here, but I need to know, I've never been to something
34:52
called a strategy session.
34:54
If so, after about an hour and a half.
34:55
despite the fact that it's probably really good stuff, an hour and a half is about my
34:59
limit.
35:00
Yours was three days long at PSG Wealth.
35:05
Was it constructive?
35:07
Was the mood different to previous years, for example?
35:11
Yeah, now, Lindsay, that's, I mean, I'm not going to keep you busy with what's
35:16
happening behind closed doors,
35:18
but what was evident, very similar to what we've seen in the budget,
35:22
there's definitely a renewed optimism.
35:26
amongst, we can see our clients.
35:29
And there's a new optimism in the financial market as well, financial
35:33
advisors.
35:35
So, yeah, and I think the move today by the
35:39
Minister of Finance definitely supported it.
35:42
And, yes, I must say I'm really optimistic for the remainder of 2026.
35:48
Yeah, bring it on.
35:49
Yes, indeed.
35:49
I can't believe that everything was positive today.
35:52
Literally everything was positive today.
35:54
If this was an animal like a bird or a dog or something like that,
35:59
I'd take it to a taxidermist and have it stuffed and put it on the mantelpiece.
36:03
For posterity's sake, Skulk.
36:05
Skulk Lowe is very much not going to be on the mantelpiece.
36:08
He'll be with us same time next week.
36:11
He's a portfolio manager at PSG Wealth Old Oak in Cape Town, and that was the 5
36:16
o'clock shadow.
36:18
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36:22
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36:24
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