| Shoprite appears to be stealing a march on some of its retail competitors as it improves on the offering at its chain of Checkers supermarkets, extends its loyalty programme, and continues rolling out its Sixty60 delivery app. The retailer has reported a solid rise in first-half sales and claims 22 uninterrupted months of market share gains in South Africa. Investors appear convinced, sending its stock more than 4% higher yesterday even though it flagged the numbers in a trading statement last month. Astral Food's shares also ended higher despite the poultry group warning of a decline in first-half earnings due to the negative economic impact of Covid-19 on the industry, which meant it wasn't able to recover rising feed costs through higher prices. KAP Industrial has had a better time, with most of its businesses performing well. And South Ocean has benefitted from a supply/demand imbalance after last year's hard lockdown resulted in a shortage of the electrical cables it manufactures. Read on for more on those stories, as well as the results of Aveng's recent rights issue and Sirius Real Estate's latest acquisition. Today is the last day of Share360's focus on the financial sector. Watch out for the next edition, which will be coming soon. I hope you have a good day. Stephen Gunnion Managing Editor, InceConnect
The latest from Ingham Analytics Hot on the heels of "Rate accelerator" which analysed the interconnection between equity and debt markets and how that is playing out, particularly in the US, Ingham Analytics has issued a locally focused note entitled "South African bond yields - Covid-19 infected?" A nightmare on Church Square they say has been steadily unfolding with foreigners long since seeing the writing on the wall. Worryingly, commercial banks have been buying up government paper this past year as they hoarded liquidity, but there are limits to this. | 