DECIDEDLY BULLISH
By Andrew McNulty
Bond yields have been declining sharply in most regions of the world since June this year. These yields are a clear indicator of investors' views on the outlook for inflation and growth, and on the relative risk in different asset clas...

PREFERENCE FOR PAPER
By Razina Munshi
Investors in search of short-term yields have flooded the commercial paper market, resulting in record listings. Whereas corporate bond issuances have dipped since the onset of the financial crisis, commercial paper on the Bond Exchange ...

PRICES TAKE A HAMMERING
By Julie Bain
The talk that consolidation in the world steel industry would reduce the dramatic swings in steel prices, and hence the fortunes of the industry, has come to naught. Rather, the severity and suddenness of this downturn means the old s...

CASHING IN ON LARGESSE
By Duncan McLeod
A multibillion-rand empowerment structure for MTN directors, senior management and other employees will be unwound in the next few weeks, potentially earning each of the group's top executives a fortune and collectively making 2 300 o...

NAIRA DIP SHAKES INVESTORS
By Larry Claasen
A wobble in the Nigerian currency, the naira, has robbed MTN of its safe-haven status among investors, who look at the group's shares as a sanctuary in an uncertain global economy. Investors got a nasty surprise last week when the sh...

INVESTMENT OF THE WEEK
By Stephen Cranston
Who it's for: Investors looking for exposure to the global equity market and who can tolerate short-term fluctuations in the market in pursuit of higher long-term returns. Who runs it: Tony Gibson at Coronation Fund Managers. ==l...

REMODELLING REQUIRED
By Rob Rose
The experiment of a JSE-listed empowerment financier has gone the way of tasteful townhouses in Fourways and cheap credit. The announcement this week of the intention to wind down Makalani, which listed in April 2005 amid grand ambi...

EGG ON ITS FACE
By Larry Claasen
So much for the big sales push. Cosmetics group Placécol increased marketing spend by R1m to R2,8m only to see revenue falling 4% to R60m and profit before tax fall 69% to R2,4m in its results for the half-year to end-August. A slow...

TRIMMING THEIR SAILS
By Rob Rose
For companies whose mandate it is to shout from the rooftops about poor decisions, media companies are notoriously badly run. It was hardly a huge surprise that the Tribune company, publisher of such iconic publications as the Los A...

DIAMONDS & DOGS
By Jamie Carr
Diamond Net1 Hats must be doffed to the thrill-seekers of Net1, who are not content merely with building their business in emerging and pre-emerging markets. This week's announcement of the progress it is making in Iraq shows...