Union says declares dispute against Northam Platinum

(Reuters) - South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has declared a dispute against small mining firm Northam Platinum, it said on Friday.

The NUM declared a dispute, the first legal step towards going on strike, after the company refused to submit a wage offer, it said in a statement.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Northam Platinum H1 earnings surges, sees slower H2

South Africa's Northam Platinum posted a more than doubling of first-half headline earnings per share on Thursday on buoyant metals prices, in line with its own forecast.

The firm said headline EPS for the six months to end December soared to 279.6 cents, up from 130.1 cents in the same period last year.

The company said on January 15 in a trading update that headline EPS was expected to rise to 265-285 cents.

Read Full Article at Reuters South Africa

Second day record close for the JSE

After opening softer after yesterdays record high the All Share climbed up another 0.5% to end at 25572.390. This was due to a rise in the resource sector with Gold Mining and Platinum Mining ending 1.51% and 1.60% higher respectively. The Industrial 25 was also up 0.46% unfortunately the financials where down 0.49%.

The gold price rose 0.93% to trade at $653.75/oz but the key was the weakening in the Rand to trade at 7.2219 to the dollar.

Other Stats

Rand-Sterling 14.2298 1.64%
Rand-Dollar 7.2219 1.21%
Rand-Euro 9.3698 1.40%

Gold 653.75 0.93%
Platinum 1180.00 1.24%
Brent Oil 55.58 0.27%

Current Trades
Again nothing since I missed to boat. I will however have more time to scan for opportunities when the auditors leave me alone in my corner.

Watch List
1)JSE CODE:NHM 4801 -5.27 %
SECTOR: Platinum & Precious Metals
Comment: This is more like it! Will need to check the charts to see if my 4500 will be a good entry point.

2)JSE CODE:SOL 24515 1.31 %
SECTOR: Integrated Oil & Gas
Comment: Still holding thumbs for a pull back for me to jump on. The oil price seems to have support at their current levels so it is unlikely in the short term.

Tomorrow
Again I fly in the face of wisdom and call for a pullback in the short term but I am still bullish in the longer term