S.A business confidence slips

South Africa’s business confidence declined further in May, according to the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI).

No surprise considering:

• high crude oil prices,
• a flagging vehicle industry with new car sales plummeting,
• rising interest rates,
• slowdown in economic growth,
• Eskom’s aging generation infrastructure struggles to cope with demand,
• high global and local food prices partly due to the idea of food for fuel or bio-fuel,
• Attacks on foreigners – Xenophobia,
• South Africa’s northern neighbor Zimbabwe is in the grip of a political and economic crisis,
• Property prices loosing value more…

Click here for more on these business confidence numbers.

JSE’s Mini Alsi 40 contract… What?

Yesterday, the JSE launched a Mini Alsi 40 contract that allows you to trade the Alsi at a hundredth of the price of the usual contract. Summit TV spoke to Allan Thomson from the JSE about their Mini Alsi Top 40. Click here for the transcript of this interview.

Very briefly, the Mini Alsi 40 (Almi) is a futures contract based on the underlying Top 40 All Share Index that’s made up of the Top 40 most liquid and traded stocks on the JSE. Its no different to the existing all share contract says Allan Thomson - it’s just in much smaller denominations giving the retail investor the opportunity to participate in the futures market.

So hows the 2 day old doing so far?

Yesterday - about 217 contracts traded or R650,000 worth of exposure.
Today – 200 contracts (what looked like one trade at the very end of the trading day)

Thinly traded… yes. But its still early days. I’m upbeat on this one and give it 2 thumbs up. Good one Allan.