Justin Brown

The world’s largest diamond-miner, De Beers, and Angola diamond-mining parastatal Empresa de Diamantes de Angola (Endiama) on Friday concluded a new agreement, four years after a contractual dispute saw the two parties’ relationship break down. The agreement became effective on Friday.

South African retail group Mr Price on Wednesday reported a 35% increase in headline earnings per share to 120,4 cents for its 2005 financial year ended March, from 89,1 cents in the previous financial year. The group increased its final dividend per share by 71% to 60 cents, from 35 cents previously.

The chief executive of world number-four gold-miner Gold Fields, Ian Cockerill, on Monday again urged Gold Fields shareholders to reject Harmony’s offer. Harmony’s offer to Gold Fields shareholders closes on Friday, and the offer has garnered 11,8% of Gold Fields’ securities in issue.

Global resources group BHP Billiton on Thursday reported increases in the production of iron ore, metallurgical coal, manganese ore, manganese alloys, natural gas, aluminium, copper, silver, lead, energy coal and ferrochrome for the nine months to March this year, compared with the nine months ended March last year.

World number four gold-miner Gold Fields on Thursday reported a decline in headline earnings per share to two cents for the March 2005 quarter from nine cents in the December quarter. Analysts surveyed by I-Net Bridge had expected Gold Fields to report headline earnings per share of 12 cents.

World number six gold-miner Harmony on Thursday announced the appointment of former Mozambican president Joachim Chissano to its board of directors, with effect from Friday. Harmony chief executive Bernard Swanepoel said: "We are extremely pleased former president Chissano has agreed to become a non-executive director."

Shares in global resources group BHP Billiton on Wednesday afternoon fell to a six-week low after the group announced that it has given in to Chinese steel makers demands that it settle at 71,5% for its iron-ore contract price increase, the same level at which its two major iron-ore mining competitors have settled, analysts said.

Officials from South African oil and chemicals group Sasol and representatives from three major trade unions on Monday agreed to the establishment of an occupational health and safety charter. "The parties agreed that safety is the first priority at all Sasol operations," Sasol said in a statement.

South Africa’s Highveld Steel and Vanadium (Hiveld, HVL) on Friday soared to an all-time high of R63,50 per share on the JSE Securities Exchange SA due to the shortage in vanadium metal, which has seen the price of the commodity rocket. At 1.25pm, Hiveld was quoted at R62,50 per share, up 7,8% or R4,50 from its previous close of R58.

The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was higher on Thursday on solid buying interest as a result of the weak rand, which boosted the resources sector and the financial stocks, brokers said. The top performer for the day was oil and chemicals group Sasol, which hit an all-time high, and was the top-traded stock by value.

South African oil and chemicals group Sasol on Thursday surged to an all-time high on continued investor interest in the stock due to the extremely high oil price, analysts said. At 11.15am, on the JSE Securities Exchange, Sasol’s stock was quoted at an all-time high of R161,90, up 2,6% or R4,15 from its previous close.

Three gold mines operated by world number two gold-miner AngloGold Ashanti face the prospect of flooding, if rival DRDGold doesn’t pick up the tab for the pumping of underground water from its Hartebeesfontein and Buffelfontein gold mines, which are currently shut down and in the process of being liquidated.

World number six gold miner Harmony Gold on Tuesday fell to its lowest level since September 2001 because of the continued strike at most of the group’s Free State gold mines and the group’s continued quarterly losses. By 11.15am, Harmony’s stock on the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa was quoted at R47,20, down 30c or 0,6% from its previous close.

South African banking group Absa is hoping to almost quadruple the size of its NewGold exchange traded fund from its current take-up value of just more than R240-million to R1-billion by the end of 2005, Absa Corporate and Merchant Bank’s Dr Vladimir Nedeljkovic has said in an interview.

World number six gold-miner Harmony Gold has issued Section 189 notices of restructuring at four more shafts, a Solidarity spokesperson said on Tuesday. "Harmony is restructuring as we have excess labour at the current rand environment," Harmony marketing director Ferdi Dippenaar said.

Shares in retail group Spar rose by 1,4% on the JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) after the company said its saw its earnings increasing during its current interim period. Spar on Monday announced that earnings per share for the six months ending March 31 2005 will be between 20% and 30% higher than earnings for the previous corresponding reporting period.

South African transport parastal Transnet and mining group Kumba Resources on Monday announced that they had signed a new iron ore contract and had agreed on the expansion of Transnet’s rail and port infrastructure to allow Kumba to expand its iron ore output by 10-million tonnes by 2009.

Leisure group Sun International on Tuesday reported a sharp increase in headline earnings per share to 252 cents for the half-year ending December 2004, from 153 cents in the previous comparative half-year. The group attributed the improvement to strong growth in casino revenues, improved operating margins and lower borrowing costs.

Global resources group BHP Billiton on Tuesday announced that it has made a $7,3-billion counter-bid for Australian mining group WMC Resources. On November 22 last year, mining group Xstrata announced that it would bid to take over WMC Resources, offering WMC Resources’ shareholders Aus$7 cash per share. BHP Billiton is offering $7,85 per share.

South African oil and chemicals group Sasol on Tuesday touched a fresh high on the continued strength in the dollar oil price and a weaker rand, brokers said. At 11am, Sasol’s shares were quoted at R146,60 on the JSE Securities Exchange, up 60 cents or 0,4% from its previous close. Earlier, Sasol touched R147,50.

South African oil and chemicals group Sasol on Monday touched yet another all-time high on bullish sentiment toward the stock driven by the high oil and chemical prices, a re-rating of the stock by foreign investors and positioning ahead of the group’s latest interim results due next Monday, analysts said.

Shares in South African gold miner DRDGold on Friday plunged 20% following the group’s results for the half-year ended in December 2004, which were released on Thursday, and which analysts and brokers termed "shocking". At 10.15am on the JSE Securities Exchange, DRDGold was quoted down 20% or R1,60 at R6,25.

Global resources group Anglo American is confident about the prospects for its 2005 financial year as reflected by the strong 30% increase in its total dividend per share for the 2004 year, Anglo Financial Director Tony Lea said during a conference call on Wednesday.

South African oil and chemicals group Sasol on Tuesday touched an all-time high on the JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) on the group’s strong earnings outlook. On Tuesday, Sasol announced that it expects that its headline earnings per share for the half-year ending December 2004 to be about 60% higher than in the previous comparative period.

Global resources group BHP Billiton on Wednesday climbed to an all-time high on the JSE Securities Exchange of R80 a share on better-than-expected interim results. At 9.10am, BHP Billiton was quoted at R79,85 rand, up 2,7% or R2,10 from the stock’s previous close of R77,75.