JSE dragged down by 4% Naspers drop

THE JSE slipped yesterday with indices sensitive to interest-rate changes, like banks and retailers, seemingly brushing off what was seen by some as a hawkish tone from the Reserve Bank.

The Reserve Bank earlier kept the repurchase rate on hold at 6.75%‚ as was expected.

International markets were mixed‚ with those in the US closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The day began inauspiciously‚ with China’s Shanghai Composite reaching a two-month low.

The JSE dipped as media giant Naspers fell 4.06% to R3 741.75‚ tracking losses in Hong Kong-listed Tencent‚ in which it owns 33%. Naspers is at risk of ending a streak of gains.

The JSE all-share lost 0.75% to 60 629.2 points and the Top 40 lost 0.91%.

Industrials dropped 1.54% and property 0.39%. General retailers gained 1.02%‚ gold miners 0.77%‚ and banks 0.64%.

Standard Bank rose 1.31% to R170.69 and Nedbank 1.2% to R215‚ while Capitec fell 1.52% to R975. Truworths gained 2.82% to R76.52. Cement firm PPC firmed 3.03% to R6.80‚ after reporting net profit attributable to shareholders rose 188% to R294-million up to end-September.

Net1 UEPS Technologies surged 14.18% to R151‚ after being appointed as an agent for Luxembourgbased bitcoin exchange Bitstamp.

Technology group EOH fell 8.14% to R81.30‚ even though it was recently cleared of allegations of wrongdoing in a contract with the government.

Stenprop was up 1.91% to R19.74‚ after earlier declaring an interim dividend per share of 4 pence (0.74c) for the period to end-September‚ a 2.6% increase from the prior comparative period.

Quantum Foods jumped 9.55% to R3.44‚ having declared a final dividend of 34c for the year to endSeptember‚ 467% higher than in the prior year.

Shortly after the JSE closed at 5pm, European markets were mixed‚ with the FTSE 100 flat‚ while the CAC 40 had added 0.55%.

Platinum had lost 0.36% to $934.26 and gold 0.1% to $1 290.99‚ while Brent crude was flat – at $63.28 a barrel of oil. – BusinessLIVE