Liquidity returns to stock market

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Tuesday January 15, 2008 00:00

The increased activity on the bourse is attributed to the forthcoming company results for mostly large cap counters, and has seen investors scramble for certain stocks or dispose of stock or take cover.

'Most of the blue-chip counters have now entered their 'closed periods' and the improved liquidity may be an indication of the confidence or lack thereof of the expected financial results to be released during the first quarter of 2008.'
Among the blue-chip companies expected to report their results in the next three months include Barclays, Stanchart, Sefalana, Letshogo, BIHL and FNNB.

Last week, the DCI went down 0.28 percent, pulled by losses in counters such as Stanchart and RPC Data, while the FCI also shed a marginal 0.01 percent to close the week at 2200.84 points.
Losses in counters such as Stanchart, along with those of other commercial banks, were largely responsible for the 14 percent nose-dive which the DCI took in the last quarter of 2007.

Sefalana was the biggest gainer last week, powering on 9.33 percent. It was followed by Diamonex, which added 6.84 percent following its share placement on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

The placement, which was worth approximately 1.4 million pounds, was done through London-based brokers to institutional investors.
A total of 8,457,000 shares were placed by the brokers in the last round at 0.16 pounds per share to raise 1.355 million pounds.

The latest raising follows on the 9,070,000 ordinary shares placed at 0.37 Australian dollars and raising 3.355 million Australian dollars for the company in December 2006.
This brings the total ordinary shares placed top 17,527,000, raising approximately 2.8 million pounds.