Petra Diamonds’s stocks tumble

Town’s 2016/17 property valuations report, which placed the overall nominal value of all property in the CBD at more than R30.62bn, said there were R4.3bn projects under construction with an additional R8.1bn in planning or proposed for development. Guest speaker Deon van Zyl, chairperson of the Western Cape Property Development Forum, said private developers should engage more closely with affordable accommodation, particularly for “the missing middle, and in particular, in the CBD, those that made up the area’s workforce. PETRA Diamonds’s stock price fell to its lowest in a year after the diamond miner said full-year production would fall 8% to 9% short of its earlier guidance of 4.4 million carats because of a slower-than-anticipated buildup of its expansion programme.

Shares in the company declined as much as 10.1% yesterday, but later pared losses to trade down 4.9% at 108.09 pence at 0839 BST on the London Stock Exchange.

Petra said revenue would be between 8% and 9% lower than the market consensus.

Investors look to diamonds, which tend to hold value when basic commodities fall in price, to shield their portfolio from volatile markets.

Petra said it had initial discussions with its lender group and was “confident” that the likely shortfall in the upcoming ratio measurement would not be an issue. – Reuters