SA Mining Sector in trouble?

Year-on-year results show that South African mining production plummeted by 9.6% in February 2025, making it the sharpest decline in 2 years. PGMs, iron-ore and gold have been noted as the ones primarily responsible for these low production levels. In the previous quarter ending 28 February 2025, mining production has been on a decline, with January year-on-year results showing a 2.7% decrease and December year-on-year results showing a 2.4% decrease. Consequently, there's been a decrease in the mining sector's contribution figure to the GDP, as well as, the sales and profits figures as previously reported in my blog posts, particularly in the PGMs sector, following the sharp decline in market prices.

Clicks group semi-annual results

Current performance and outlook

Clicks has performed really well in the first half of its current fiscal year ending 31 August 2025. Clicks' turnover has increased by 6.2% year-on-year, gross profit increased by 8.1% year-on-year, total income increased by 8.9% year-on-year and headline earnings increased by an impressive 12.1% year-on-year. The group gave credit to the resilience and defensiveness of its business model for the abovementioned results, reporting an increase in market share in core health and beauty categories, increasing the contribution from private labels, strengthening profitability margins and generating robust cash flows. The group reported to have generated R1.7 billion in cash flows from its operations after working capital changes. Clicks increased its total assets by 11.4% year-on-year, and its return on assets increased 0.5% year-on-year. The primary cause of this major increase in its total assets is its investments made towards its expansion strategy. Clicks has increased its number of stores from 970 stores to 1016 stores year-on-year and has opened its 950th store in February 2025 and 29 pharmacies to date in the current year. Its forecasts state that it plans to open 45-55 stores and 45-55 pharmacies in the current fiscal year and it remains committed to its medium-term goal of having a total of 1200 stores. The group has planned out a R1.025 billion capital investment for the current year, with R578 million relating to new stores and pharmacies and store refurbishments. The remaining R447 million will be invested in supply chain, technology and infrastructure. The price earning ratio increased from 30.1 to 30.6 year-on year, the net asset value per share increased by 22.1% year-on-year and the dividends per share increased by 13.2% year-on-year. The board of directors has reportedly approved an interim gross ordinary dividend of R2.38 per share, a R0.28 year-on-year increase. This dividend will be paid in cash and the distributable reserves will be used. The group's management has reported to be confident that its leading positions in the beauty and health sectors, its long-term organic growth opportunities and the group's increasing business scale will contribute a lot to ensuring that the group achieves its medium-term objectives. Lastly, the group's directors have forecasted an increase in the year-on-year figure of the group's diluted headline earnings per share for the year ending 31 August 2025 that ranges between 11% and 16%. They expect the VAT increase, effective as of 1 May 2025, to affect consumer spending. Gold analysis

WEEKLY CHART

BULLS ARE OFFICIALLY BACK IN FULL SWING!!!!!!!! It looks like my obsession with the charts is finally starting to serve a great purpose of showing you guys my own interpretation of the markets. This week has been an amazing week for bulls, with the markets opening upward of $3,200.00. Gold is definitely in a seemingly unstoppable bullish sentiment that even I can't give a clue of where it seems likely to stop and make a huge and strong rejection. However, some financial analysts have reported to forecast it to go up until the $3,700.00 price level. But, like I always say, let's scale down to lower timeframes to further understand this movement. DAILY CHART

Well, we can clearly see that Gold has gone past the price level I forecasted it to go past in last week's post [https://www.coinsandbusiness.com/post/pick-n-pay-update ], which was $3,125.00. The $3,239.749 resistance level was a weak resistance level that it easily became Gold's support level. $3,125.00 is currently Gold's strongest support level. I am expecting Gold to finish this week slightly above the $3,400, indicating a complete domination by the bulls. THAT'S IT FROM ME! THANK YOU FOR READING! PLEASE LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE AND SUBSCRIBE TO MY FREE EMAIL LIST.