Hits&Misses

Cheer as Covid rules repealed; gloom as Eskom ramps up cuts

SA repealed Covid rules that made masks mandatory in indoor public spaces, limited the size of gatherings and imposed entry requirements at its borders. Health minister Joe Phaahla said the authorities had noted a decline in cases, hospitalisations and reported deaths, and concluded that the fifth wave was dissipating.

IN a bid to unlock shareholder value, Brait said it was ready to list consumer foods maker Premier on the JSE after about nine months of preparation, but it was waiting until the timing was right. Premier, which owns brands such as Blue Ribbon bread, Iwisa maize and Snowflake flour, is Brait’s biggest asset and accounts for 49%, or R9.26bn, of net asset value.

STOR-AGE Property’s distributable earnings crossed the R500m mark in its 2022 financial year as it benefited from the pandemic, which gave rise to new demand for self-storage. Distributable earnings rose 13.95% to R517.79m, Stor-Age said.

ESKOM said it would be forced to widen electricity cuts as labour protests linked to deadlocked wage talks disrupt operations.

The utility, which has struggled to meet power demand for more than a decade, had been implementing Stage 2 rotational outages since the start of the week.

INFLATION surged above the Reserve

Bank’s target range for the first time in more than five years, raising the prospect of policymakers hiking borrowing costs this year by the biggest margin in almost two decades. Annual inflation accelerated to 6.5% in May, from 5.9% in the previous month, Stats SA said. the second quarter, weighed down by a plunge in the attitude of building material manufacturers. The FNB/Bureau for Economic Research building confidence index registered a six-point decline to 34, but core building — which excludes building material manufacturing and hardware retail — gained four points to 35. CONFIDENCE in the - BusinessLIVE, building sector slipped in Reuters and Bloomberg