We also saw a trading update from FirstRand. The company considers diluted normalised earnings per share from continuing operations as the most accurate measure of their operational performance. I did not say that, they did. And expectations are "expected for the six months to December 2011 to increase by between 24% and 28% from 81.1 cents (adjusted from 84.3 cents to exclude OUTsurance for the six months to December 2010) in the comparative period."
So, take that 81.1 cents number, go as ever to middle of the range, 24 percent better and you get to just over 100 cents worth of earnings. Annualize that (naughty but nice) and you get to 200 cents, even my eldest daughter (she won the weekly math prize beating her arch rival much to her delight) could do that. OK, she is nearly seven, perhaps she would not understand the annualize part. The stock popped over three and a half percent to over 2350, which means at face value, the stock looks cheaper than Standard Bank. Results are expected to be released on the 28th of February. Steve from {swearword} bank will be gutted when he reads these results, they are seemingly going to be good.