Pfizer's FDA Approval & Amazon's Delivery for Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United.
You know the drill champ! This week we talk about Ronaldo's move to Manchester United and why Amazon could soon be offering afterpay to its clients.
Hey, Hisa fan,
Our week was awesome, lots of great stuff happened. Here’s a brief!
The Vaccine
Early Tuesday, markets soared on news that the U.S Food and Drug Administration had issued a full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for use in people 16 and older.
This now means that there could be more in terms of user acceptability to the vaccines which have faced various criticism since being granted emergency use authorisation in December 2020 as concerns grew mostly with the record pace at which the companies rolled them out.
Another concern was the latest developments that the vaccinated people will need to have a third shot to boost their immunity.
Pfizer shares rose by a marginal 2% while BioNTech, the German drug manufacturer which co-developed the vaccine with Pfizer, rose nearly 10% on the approval status.
The news of the vaccines sent markets to a volatile push before a relative decline of the Jackson Hole, Wyoming meeting, as investors awaited the speech by Jerome Powell.
In overall, the health sector of the S&P 500 index was one of the best performing sectors for the week on wall street.
Financials.
More financials continued to trickle in from various companies as the companies rushed to beat the deadline for the 31st August deadline set by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA).
Absa Bank Kenya Plc was the most-watched counter for the week after the company posted an 847% growth in Profit After Tax to Kshs 5.6 billion compared to Ksh 0.6 Billion in the same in 2020 with the net customer loans growing by 8% to Kes 219 billion driven by key focus products; general lending, trade loans, mortgage and scheme loans that recorded strong growth year on year.
Nation Media Group Plc posted a Kes 410.7 million pre-tax profit for the first six months ended 30th June 2021, jumping into profitability from a similar period in 2020 when it posted a loss of Kes 328 million.
Diamond Trust Bank Kenya Plc was also a mover in the banks, with the lender posting a 16% growth in profit after tax of Kes 2.9 Billion for the six month period ended 30th June 2021 from KSh 2.4 Billion in H1, 2020.
Coffee Break…It’s Manchester United for Cristiano!
Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the world’s most experienced football players is back at Manchester United after a 12-year break from the club. Ronaldo left Manchester United in 2009 for a then-world record fee of €94 million. He later moved to Juventus from Real Madrid for a record €100 million. During the time, the Portuguese football legend had scored 118 goals in 292 matches for Manchester United.
Hungry about the money? - As at the signing of Cristiano, on the market, Manchester United Plc (the company) saw its shares rally 5.8% at the New York Stock Exchange, closing at $18.29 at the close of Friday. The move also saw shares of the Italian football club, Juventus Plc, rise 1.2% during trading on Friday.
Well, let us check on just how this goes, are you into owning shares for Manchester United Plc or Juventus? What’s your take?
Amazon.com Inc
Looks like Bezos is retired but not tired. Well, Amazon Inc, the American e-commerce giant was on Friday part of the news as the company inked a deal with Affirm, a buy-now-pay-later company, offering to Amazon’s clients an opportunity to buy with $50 or more and get an opportunity to pay later.
The move by Amazon is seen as a direct action after Jack Dorsey’s Square Inc bought Australian company, Afterpay Inc.
The news saw shares of Affirm which are listed on the Nasdaq rose by 48% during trading, one of the top gainers during Friday’s trading on the exchange. The big question is, who will win the buy-now-pay-later game? Banks are already playing this and word is, Apple is also planning to enter the business in collaboration with Goldman Sachs.
Yikes! - Remember in our newsletter last week and we talked about onlyfans? well, the video streaming platform has reversed the decision and says that they will continue allowing all forms of content on the platform. (Read more here)
What Cowries Are we collecting this week?
Amazon.com Inc - The giant e-commerce company showed little activity despite the news of getting into a deal with Affirm. This week, we watch the company and see if the share prices will reflect the recent actions of the company. On Hisa, Amazon closed the week at $ 3,349.63 per share.
South African Markets - We know, we did not talk about S.A but that doesn’t mean we don’t care. Our cowrie collectors are still at camp, last week, South Africa topped Global charts to post the highest unemployment rate and we are closely watching on how this will affect markets.
WPP Scangroup Plc - Investors, regulators and shareholders are all watching and eagerly waiting for the financial statements of WPP Scangroup Plc set to be released on Tuesday this week. We won’t be left out, we have a spot too and we will share what we get from the advertising company.
Nairobi Securities Exchange - As of the close of Friday, various companies released their financials and we will be watching if the bullish momentum of the Kenyan stock market will be maintained.
How about you? What are you collecting this week?
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