News in brief: Food and commodity companies experienced stocks rising despite global food prices declining, while JBS and Bunge showed contrasting performances with 7.28% gain and 1.34% drop, respectively. Other international players saw slight rises, while some agriculture chemical firms fluctuated, and machinery giants Deere and AGCO both saw stock price increases.
Food and commodity companies saw their stocks rise over the past week, despite global food prices declining month-on-month as well as year-on-year, according to the FAO Food Price Index summary for June 2023.
Brazil’s JBS saw its value rise by 7.28% at the end of trading on Friday, likely driven by the news of its impending listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Its competitor in the food and commodity business, Bunge, had a poor outing, and its stock was 1.34% lower than what it began the week with. Last week, the same company had recorded a value rise of over 8%.
Other key international food players like Tyson Foods (1.02%), Olam Group (0.72%), and Godrej Agrovet (2.52%) recorded slight rises in stock prices. Meanwhile, Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. or ADM saw its stock price stay the same at the close of trading on Friday after its impressive performance the previous week, with a positive 4.15%.
It was another mixed week for giant agriculture chemical companies. Bayer, for example, recovered half of the value it lost the previous week, while Syngenta came closer to a 100% recovery, and DuPont stocks recovered at more than 130%. ADAMA Ltd. stock lost more than the slight gain it started the week with, and others, including Nutrien and Mosaic Co., recorded losses as well. Although the latter two are still in the green when their previous week’s gain is considered.
Intrepid Potash, which had gained 11.85% a week before, lost about 3.06%. The situation was different for fellow chemical producer, Yara International, which announced its exit from Cameroon during the week after selling a bulk of its shares to NJS Group. The Norwegian company piled a gain of 6.04% on its stock after it gained 1.86% the preceding week.
CF Industries, which some months ago announced a joint venture with CHS Inc. to make low-carbon fertilisers, gained 5.04% on its stock during the period under consideration. Its ‘partner’ did not fare well as it lost 0.21% of its value.
For Corteva, the seed and chemical company would have had a good week during which it celebrated its 50th anniversary with a commitment to make India a seed innovation hub through more investments in research and development. However, it was on the receiving end of a public relations move gone went wrong after the media house, BBC, was caught promoting it and the industrial agricultural giant in a documentary about food sustainability. It ended the week with a loss of 3.07%.
Machinery giant Deere and Company saw its stock price appreciate by 3.07%, and it opened the new week with news about acquiring the precision agriculture company, Smart Apply. AGCO, its direct competitor, pulled stronger numbers with a 3.68% rise in its share price. It has a similar precision technology that Deere just acquired, thanks to a collaboration with Bosch BASF.
