If this bout of swine flu variant that I’ve contracted does not kill me, it’s fairly likely that this fickle stock market will. Being under the weather, short of sleep and sans appetite is bad enough. But watching the share price of Steinhoff skittling off its historic lows on nothing other than an effort to stretch debt arrangements a little further, really left me gutted. I had just written my weekly FM column in which I advised, after perusing what passed for unaudited Steinhoff interim results, that punters would do well to steer clear of this debacle. Oh boy. Look, I can handle making a wrong call. I’ve made a few in the past, and I don’t doubt there may be a few more in the future. But the Steinhoff situation really burns me. Punters are so easily lulled into the debt-laden corporation’s murky valuation prospect that they will look past indiscretions that put Steinhoff firmly in the dwang, as well as vicious impairments and hazardous fundamentals. So while Steinhoff more than ...

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