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*Update: This article has been amended to indicate that Adcock Ingram acquired Genop Holdings and not Aspen as initially reported in this story.
Cape Town - The JSE closed firmer on Tuesday as the index continued to be buoyed mainly by rand hedge stocks.
Diversified miner BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] led the Top-40 index, closing the day up 2.63%, while other rand hedge stocks such as Mondi Ltd [JSE:MND] and Mondi plc [JSE:MNP] inched up 1.82% and 2.70% respectively. Richemont [JSE:CFR] recorded some moderate gains to end the day up 0.60%, while Naspers [JSE:NPN] managed to yet again break above R3 000 per share to eventually close the day up 1.10%, at R2 985.
The rand weakened further in today’s trading session as the US dollar continued to rebound from last week’s lows. The local currency broke out above R13/$ to reach an intra-day low of R13.04 against the greenback. The local unit managed to pull back to trade at R13.01/$ when the JSE closed.
The JSE Top-40 closed the day up 0.69%, while the JSE All-share index gained another 0.64%. The Resources index gained 1.52%, Industrials firmed by 0.52% and Financials eked out a 0.11% gain despite the firmer rand.
Adcock Ingram announced the acquisition of Genop Holdings through a share purchase agreement for 100% of its shares. Genop Holdings is a highly specialised instrument, surgical and pharmaceutical products company with a strong footprint across Southern Africa. The stock reacted positively to the news as it traded firmer to eventually close the day up 0.95% at R291.41.
On the earnings front Comair [JSE:COM] released a decent set of full year results which indicated that profit after tax increased to R297m compared with the previous year’s R197m. Earnings per share and headlines earnings per share increased to 63.7 cents and 67.0c respectively. Dividends declared for the year increased to 21c per share from 16c before. The stock, however, closed 0.88% lower at R5.60.
Master Drilling [JSE:MDI] also released a decent set of results which indicated an increase in revenue and earnings per share of 12.5% and 4.8% in US dollar terms. However in rand terms, the impact of the strengthening rand saw earnings per share and headline earnings per share both decreasing by 10.7%. The business has a committed order book of $115.3m and a pipeline of $226.1m. The stock closed the day unchanged at R14.90 per share.
Gold was weaker in today’ session due to dollar strength, which saw the precious metal slide to intra-day lows of $1 322.71 per ounce, before bouncing marginally to trade at $1 327.37/oz at the time of writing. Palladium continued with its positive run and it was trading at $944.98/oz when the JSE closed. However platinum continued to slide in today’s session and it was recorded at $984.33/oz when the JSE closed.
Brent crude traded firmer as it inched back above $54 per barrel ahead of US Crude Oil Inventories numbers tomorrow. This jump is despite fears of decreased demand due to Hurricane Irma in the US. Brent crude was trading at $54.31 per barrel just after the JSE closed.
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