Alec Hogg: Our portfolio’s US tech stocks shoot the lights out

Rational minds will be praying Cyril Ramaphosa and his misguided ANC pays particular attention to this morning's headlines. If ever there were an advert for the superiority of capitalism over command-and-control collectivism, this is it..Money is flooding out of China at an unprecedented pace after the penny dropped that Beijing is abandoning Deng Xiaoping's "good cat" experiment with free enterprise which pulled the communist state out of widespread poverty. As a result of Beijing putting its idealogical jackboot back on, the value of China's next generation businesses are plummeting. In stark contrast, the West's tech businesses are flourishing, evidenced by last night's reporting of more record financial results..China's tech stock rout has serious implications for South African investors. Naspers/Prosus, whose share prices are determined by the value of its Tencent shareholding, is the backbone of the JSE – and many SA retirement portfolios. With Tencent dipping another 3.5% on the Hong Kong market this morning, the stock is now officially into a new bear market having lost over 21% in the last five days. Naspers/Prosus is following it lower, with an additional embarrassment of having spent over $5bn buying back their own shares at prices far above the current level..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Although the signs have been evident for a while, I was slow to react because of the hope that Naspers management could see the light and belatedly unbundle the Tencent shares which would wipe out most of the stock's long-time 50% discount on its true asset base. That approach was rectified yesterday when the shares of both Naspers and Discovery (which owns 25% of China's market leading Ping An Health Insurance) were sold out of the BizNews share portfolio. Here's the link to the webinar recording which provides more detail..On the positive side, two of the portfolio's stalwarts reported excellent financial results last night. Apple delivered record profits for the June quarter, boosted by surging iPhone sales – a direct return on its ongoing investment in human ingenuity. Microsoft benefitted from a big bet in cloud computing with continuing exponential revenue growth delivering a 47% profit surge, also a record for the quarter..Coming back to SA, the inimitable RW Johnson is once again urging CR and Co to sober up to where the ANC's antiquated policies have taken the country. His brilliant piece on Politicsweb today likens the ruling political party's situation to where PW Botha stood ahead of his 1985 Rubicon Speech. Also accessible as a taste-before-you-subscribe offer is The Economist's hard-hitting piece on SA's month of shame. The video embedded above provides an appetiser..NB FOR YOUR WALL STREET JOURNAL ACCESS….As a Premium subscriber you are entitled to full membership of wsj.com (normal price $29 a month). Be sure to action your access through the Premium link on the BizNews website. Because of The Wall Street Journal's credential requirements, be sure to create a password which has at least 8 characters and includes at least one letter and one number – NB it MAY NOT contain any special characters (ie #, !, @ etc). To maintain access to WSJ.com, you MUST enter our partner's website via BizNews Premium at least once a month. A final PS, if you had previously signed up for WSJ you'll need to clear the cookies from your device. Our help desk can assist – support@biznews.com.

Alec Hogg: Our portfolio’s US tech stocks shoot the lights out

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