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Industrials buoy JSE‚ retailers weigh

Johannesburg - The all share index closed in the black on Tuesday‚ with retailers and gold counters showing losses‚ which were offset by gains in the industrial and financial indices.

At 17:00 the All Share [JSE:J203] index was up 0.54% at 40 732.52 points‚ with the Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index gaining 0.65%.

The food and drug retailers index — which includes Shoprite — shed 2.57%‚ gold counters were down 0.90%‚ while industrials added 0.61% and financials gained 0.59%.

“With Richemont gaining 2.2% for no specific reason and Bidvest coming out with a good trading statement we saw a fair recovery in the industrial space‚” said Nicholas Sorour‚ portfolio manager at Sasfin Securities in Pretoria.

“Retailers dropped today with Shoprite shedding more than 3% after it released results which were perceived as disappointing. Retailers have had a good run recently and as soon as results are not as perfect as expected‚ it is used as an excuse to take a bit of profit‚” he said.

European markets were broadly stronger‚ due to bullish data out of Germany. The German ZEW survey's economic-expectations index for February rose to 48.2‚ well above forecasts of 35.0 and the highest level seen since April 2010‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported.

At 17:00 local time London’s FTSE 100 was 0.83% stronger‚ while the Dow Jones Industrial Index was 0.42% firmer‚ after investors returned from the long Presidents’ Day holiday weekend.

On the JSE‚ retailer Shoprite (SHP) lost 3.08% to close at R172.50 and Mr Price (MPC) gave back 3.36% to R123.05. Shoprite on Tuesday morning reported a 12.5% rise in headline earnings per share to 315.9c for the six months ended December from 280.8c a year ago.

This triggered a selloff in the sector with some analysts regarding retailers as overvalued.

Massmart (MSM) gave back 1.39% to close at R186.62 and Woolies (WHL) lost 1.27% to R66.15.

Newly listed Sibanye Gold (SGL)‚ formed by the unbundling of some of Gold Fields’ (GFI’s) South African assets‚ slumped 11.05% to R13.60 due to investor concerns that the share was overbought.

Among general resource counters BHP Billiton (BIL) added 1.48% to close at R309.50.

Among platinum counters Anglo American Platinum (AMS) added 0.92% to R447. It shed to 5% on Monday following a shooting incident at its Siphumelele mine.

Among industrials Bidvest Group (BVT) closed 2.17% higher at R231.41 after saying on Tuesday that on a normalised basis‚ excluding the abnormal profit of R399.1 million on the partial sale of the investment in Mumbai International Airport Private Limited (MIAL) in the comparative period‚ headline earnings per share for the six months ended December are expected to be between 17% and 19% higher than the comparative period’s 613.4 cents per share.

Compagnie Richemont (CFR) lifted 2.20% to R73.74.

Diversified industrial group Eqstra Holdings (EQS) shot up 6.95% to close at R6.31 after it said in a trading update on Tuesday that it anticipated headline earnings per share (HEPS) from continuing operations to have increased between 25% and 30% for the six months ended December compared to the previous corresponding period.

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