Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - Industrial counters were the main laggards on the JSE on Friday‚ reversing its recent upward pattern‚ as a few of big local players such as MTN‚ Imperial and Bidvest went ex-dividend on Friday.
“Retailers also shed value due to rand weakness‚ as foreigners sold off their retail holdings in the weak rand environment‚ as their earnings in this space are diminishing. The retail space is mostly owned by foreigners‚” Ryan Wibberley‚ equity dealer at Investec Asset Management‚ said.
Meanwhile continued global investor uncertainty about the outcome of Cypriot banking negotiations at the weekend also weighed on global sentiment‚ although global markets were seen trading firmer in late trade on Friday‚ shrugging off some of the Cypriotic concerns.
Cypriot lawmakers were on Friday debating ways to raise 5.8bn euros ($7.5bn) needed to win a European bailout with a Monday deadline‚ in order to avert financial collapse in the small island country. The European Central Bank said it will cut the tiny Mediterranean island off from emergency funds after March 25 unless it agrees to a EU-led bailout‚ after Cyprus failed to secure financial help from Russia on Friday.
At 17:00‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index closed down 0.63% at 40 063.38 points‚ with the Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index giving back 0.82% to 35 493.62 points.
The industrial and general retailers indices gave back 1.47% and 1.11% respectively‚ while gold miners advanced 0.66%.
On the international front the Dow Jones Industrial index was trading 0.47% higher at 14.488 points at 16:52 local time and the London FTSE 100 index was 0.48% firmer at the same time.
On the JSE‚ Anglo American (AGL) closed 0.93% softer at R246.96‚ while rival BHPBilliton (BIL) added 0.52% to R276.50 and Sasol (SOL) garnered 1.40% to R417.00.
Altech (ALT) surged 7.31% to close at R38.26 after issuing a cautionary on Friday saying that it was in talks‚ with speculation that the company is restructuring.
Naspers (NPN) ended the day 4.30% weaker at R570.25 after Hong Kong listed online gaming company Tencent dipped 2.8% on Friday after recent year-end results. Naspers owns more than 30% of Tencent.
Richemont (CFR) shed 3.21% to R72.65‚ after releasing softer than expected February Swiss watch sales numbers on Wednesday.
Pharmaceutical group Adcock Ingram’s (AIP) surged 9.25% to R61.40‚ after the pharmaceutical company said it received an unsolicited bid from diversified industrial group Bidvest (BVT) to acquire 60% of Adcock’s share capital. Bidvest closed 0.89% at R198.22.
Miners Lonmin (LON) closed 1.64% firmer at R42.71‚ while gold player Sibanye (SGL) gave back 3.88% to R12.64. Coal of Africa (CZA) surged 6.50% to R2.13.
Retailers Truworths (TRU) was down 1.85% to R90.00 and Lewis (LEW) shed 3.05% to R64.93.
Mobile operator MTN Group (MTN) dropped 7.40% to R162.50 after going ex-dividend.
“Retailers also shed value due to rand weakness‚ as foreigners sold off their retail holdings in the weak rand environment‚ as their earnings in this space are diminishing. The retail space is mostly owned by foreigners‚” Ryan Wibberley‚ equity dealer at Investec Asset Management‚ said.
Meanwhile continued global investor uncertainty about the outcome of Cypriot banking negotiations at the weekend also weighed on global sentiment‚ although global markets were seen trading firmer in late trade on Friday‚ shrugging off some of the Cypriotic concerns.
Cypriot lawmakers were on Friday debating ways to raise 5.8bn euros ($7.5bn) needed to win a European bailout with a Monday deadline‚ in order to avert financial collapse in the small island country. The European Central Bank said it will cut the tiny Mediterranean island off from emergency funds after March 25 unless it agrees to a EU-led bailout‚ after Cyprus failed to secure financial help from Russia on Friday.
At 17:00‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index closed down 0.63% at 40 063.38 points‚ with the Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index giving back 0.82% to 35 493.62 points.
The industrial and general retailers indices gave back 1.47% and 1.11% respectively‚ while gold miners advanced 0.66%.
On the international front the Dow Jones Industrial index was trading 0.47% higher at 14.488 points at 16:52 local time and the London FTSE 100 index was 0.48% firmer at the same time.
On the JSE‚ Anglo American (AGL) closed 0.93% softer at R246.96‚ while rival BHPBilliton (BIL) added 0.52% to R276.50 and Sasol (SOL) garnered 1.40% to R417.00.
Altech (ALT) surged 7.31% to close at R38.26 after issuing a cautionary on Friday saying that it was in talks‚ with speculation that the company is restructuring.
Naspers (NPN) ended the day 4.30% weaker at R570.25 after Hong Kong listed online gaming company Tencent dipped 2.8% on Friday after recent year-end results. Naspers owns more than 30% of Tencent.
Richemont (CFR) shed 3.21% to R72.65‚ after releasing softer than expected February Swiss watch sales numbers on Wednesday.
Pharmaceutical group Adcock Ingram’s (AIP) surged 9.25% to R61.40‚ after the pharmaceutical company said it received an unsolicited bid from diversified industrial group Bidvest (BVT) to acquire 60% of Adcock’s share capital. Bidvest closed 0.89% at R198.22.
Miners Lonmin (LON) closed 1.64% firmer at R42.71‚ while gold player Sibanye (SGL) gave back 3.88% to R12.64. Coal of Africa (CZA) surged 6.50% to R2.13.
Retailers Truworths (TRU) was down 1.85% to R90.00 and Lewis (LEW) shed 3.05% to R64.93.
Mobile operator MTN Group (MTN) dropped 7.40% to R162.50 after going ex-dividend.
