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Johannesburg - The JSE was firmer on Tuesday at midday as industrials out-performed expectations and countered losses on the resource counters.
At 12:09 the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was up 0.42% to 38 329.04 points with industrials up 1.02% on the back of a trading statement released by Richemont that said net profit for the year is likely to increase by approximately 30% compared to the previous year. The Top40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] was also expectedly slightly firmer‚ up 0.54% to 33 766‚66‚ with Richemont up 4.9% or 331 cents at R70.80. In comparison‚ gold counters remained under pressure from last week’s commodity sell-off with the index down a full 1%.
Major European markets opened firmer with London’s FTSE 100 up 0.88% at 12.09pm local time. In Japan the Nikkei 225 closed 0.29% lower‚ while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 1.08% before the close.
On the JSE‚ SABMiller (SAB) was up 2.37%% to R486.28. The company announced earlier that Executive Chairman Graham Mackay has been diagnosed with a brain tumour. He underwent surgery on Monday and will now embark on a course of treatment.
Accordingly‚ the board has accelerated the planned promotion of Chief Operating Officer Alan Clark to Chief Executive with immediate effect‚ the group said.
Retailers remained volatile with Pick n Pay (PIK) up 0.77% to R41.62 after it reported a 21.7% reduction in diluted headline earnings per share to 109.61c despite a 7.1% rise in turnover to R59.3bn. Earlier in the day the retailer was down almost 3% as investors reacted to the annual results. Fellow retailer Shoprite (SHP) gave up 1.75% to follow Massmart who were down 0.92% today having lost more than 3% yesterday on their trading update.
