MTN crash adds to drag on JSE

Negative corporate news and risk-off trade on global markets weighed on the JSE, with MTN plummeting on news it was once again in the crosshairs of Nigerian authorities.

The rand also continued its slide, as the Turkish lira fell almost 5% on reports the deputy governor of its central bank was stepping down. The Argentinian peso was also in turmoil, but recovered most of its losses as its central bank raised interest rates by 15 percentage points to 60%.

Banks and retailers extended earlier losses as a result of the weaker rand, with further pressure placed on those indices after the central energy fund forecast a 23c-28c fuel-price hike in September.

The all share fell 2.27% to 58,802.7 points and the top 40 2.55%.

Industrials fell 3.82%, general retailers 2.99%, food and drug retailers 2.1% and banks 1.52%.

MTN’s share price crashed 19.41% to R86.50, while Standard Bank’s fell 2.39% to R185. They confirmed earlier that Nigeria’s central bank had ordered them to return billions it claims have been taken out of the country illegally. This news could be symptomatic of a central bank that lacked independence in a country facing huge fiscal issues, said Vestact analyst Byron Lotter.

Local economic news was mildly downbeat, with producer price inflation slightly exceeding consensus expectations, having risen to 6.1% in July. A Bloomberg consensus had expected 6%.

Naspers slumped 6.42% to R3,350.

Mr Price fell 4.44% to R229.12, despite having earlier released a trading update for the four months to August 25 in which it reported a 6.6% growth in group retail sales.

Santam edged 0.34% lower to R300. It earlier declared an interim dividend of R3.63, an 8% increase.

Net1 UEPS fell 18.16% to R102.82, after it said its profit fell to $38m in the year to end-June, from $74m a year before.

Shortly after the JSE closed, the Dow was down 0.32%, while in Europe the FTSE 100 had fallen 0.61%, the CAC 40 0.35% and the DAX 30 0.39%. At the same time, platinum had lost 0.55% to $793.38 an ounce and gold 0.48% to $1,200.62. Brent crude was 0.1% higher at $77.41 a barrel. The top 40 Alsi futures index fell 2.78% to 52,377 points.