Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - Clothing retailer Truworths International [JSE:TRU] was the star performer on the JSE on Thursday morning after better-than-expected sales gave the share price a massive boost.
The gain of as much as 10% in the share price was however not enough to lift the market as a whole, as there were again sharp drops in the prices of some well-known commodity shares including Lonmin [JSE:LON], Anglo American [JSE:AGL] and Impala Platinum (Implats) [JSE:IMP].
The result was that the All-share index was 0.26% lower at 54 466 points and the Top 40 index lost 0.28% to trade at 48 945 points. The main culprit on Thursday morning was the resources sector which lost 3.67%, followed by gold with 2.71% as investors used the strong gains of the previous day to take profits.
Analysts have lately issued frequent warnings that the market, which gained more than 8% over the past 30 days, is seriously overbought and that profit-taking is possible.
The Financial index was also 0.74% softer but the Industrial index gained 0.47% as Naspers [JSE:NPN] set a new all-time high. By midday Naspers was 1.2% higher at R2 077.66, just beating the previous high of R2 077.50. At one stage the share was as high as R2 081.80 on the back of stronger markets in China, where concerns about the Chinese economy have subsided.
Most of the attention was however on the retail sector, where Truworths and Woolworths [JSE:WHL] both set new records. Investors were particularly impressed by Truworths' announcement that sales growth accelerated as cash purchases outpaced credit sales. The stock rose the most in six years and at midday was 9.8% up at a new high of R105.65.
Revenue gained 19% in the 18 weeks through October, compared with 4.7% growth in the same period last year. Cash sales rose by 25%, compared with a 17% gain in credit purchases. Truworths is up 35% this year, valuing the company at R45bn.
Woolworths also benefited from the excitement and gained 1.37% to yet another high of R10.11.
The same excitement was however not evident in the resources sector, where Anglo American lost 5.69% to trade at yet another low of R118.65, giving up all the previous day’s gains. Glencore [JSE:GLN] also gave up some of Wednesday’s gains and traded 1.26% lower at R26.71.
There were also big losses in the platinum sector, where Lonmin [JSE:LON] lost another 11.24% to trade at only R4.42. The company said in a production report on Thursday that its rightsizing is now 50% complete after six months with 2 978 workers - 1 978 employees and 1 000 contractors - having lost their jobs. Implats slipped 6.61% to R38.55.
In the financial sector Old Mutual [JSE:OML] was also the victim of profit-taking, after the share reached a new high on Wednesday on a strong sales report.
Africa’s biggest insurer said gross sales rose 31% in the third quarter as sales increased on the continent and at its wealth unit. Sales climbed to £8.1bn from £6.2bn a year earlier. At midday the share price was 1.68% lower at R44.94.
MTN [JSE:MTN] traded 0.81% lower at R161.96 as the company is still negotiating with the Nigerian authorities about its R71bn fine for continuing to provide services in that country to unregistered SIM card holders.
