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Naspers, rand hedges give JSE firm start to the week

Cape Town - The JSE opened the week firmer as it was buoyed mainly by Naspers and other rand hedge stocks.

Earlier momentum from Tencent Holdings on the Hang Seng this morning, helped propel JSE-listed media giant Naspers to gain 3.10% and close as the top mover in the JSE Top-40 index. Mondi Ltd and Mondi plc recorded gains to end the day up 2.00% and 1.79% respectively. PPC continued with its impressive run as the stock gained another 1.73% to close at R6.51 per share.

The rand was caught in a volatile session which saw the local currency weakening to intra-day lows of R12.96 against the greenback, before bouncing to reach intra-day highs of R12.87/$. The local currency was trading at R12.93 to the US dollar when the JSE closed.

On the earnings front, AVI Limited released a decent set of full year results. The stock managed to reach an intra-day high of R100.00 per share before settling just below its 50-day moving average to close at R97.33. The key highlights from the results included a 9.4% increase in headline earnings per share to 507.7 cents; an increase in revenue of 8.2% to R13.18bn, a 10.7% jump in operating profit and a rise of 28% in return on capital employed. AVI declared a final dividend of 243c a share, which brings the total dividend for the year to 405c (+9.5% on the previous year).

Remgro said in a trade update it expects headline earnings per share for the year ended 30 June 2017 to be up by between 31% and 35%. It is important to note that HEPS number is a result of a positive fair value adjustment of R687m, due to a decrease in the value of the bondholders exchange option of exchangeable bonds. The stock managed to close up 0.15% at R215.61 per share.

The JSE All-share index managed to close up 0.64% and the Top-40 index 0.85%. The Industrials index gained 0.89%, the Resources index inched up 0.29% and the Financials index traded mostly flat to close up 0.01%.

Gold was trading under pressure mainly because of the recovery in the US dollar. The precious metal slid to intra-day lows of $1 331.53 per ounce before recovering marginally to trade at $1 335.04/oz when the JSE closed. This saw gold miners such as AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields shedding 5.62% and 3.09% respectively.

Platinum traded under pressure which saw it breaking below $1 000/oz, to trade at $999.75 at the JSE close, up from an intra-day low of $995.75/oz. Palladium bucked the down trend, inching up to intra-day highs of $953.68/oz before settling at $940.93 just after the JSE closed.

Brent crude slid on fears of decreased demand due to the current hurricanes devastating some cities in the US. The liquid gold slid below $54 per barrel to reach an intra-day low of $53.04. It was trading at $53.61 per barrel just after the JSE closed.

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Rand - Dollar
19.00
-0.5%
Rand - Pound
24.02
-0.5%
Rand - Euro
20.53
-0.3%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.37
-0.2%
Rand - Yen
0.13
-0.6%
Platinum
904.37
+0.8%
Palladium
1,014.65
+1.3%
Gold
2,205.79
+0.5%
Silver
24.61
-0.1%
Brent Crude
86.09
-0.2%
Top 40
68,281
+0.9%
All Share
74,458
+0.7%
Resource 10
57,014
+2.4%
Industrial 25
103,960
+0.7%
Financial 15
16,486
-0.2%
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