JSE lower as Naspers slips

THE JSE lost momentum yesterday and closed lower as lacklustre global markets struggled to find direction despite an easing in geopolitical tension.

The JSE was dragged down by Naspers after it was downgraded on Wednesday‚ as well as Standard Bank‚ which reported disappointing interim results yesterday. The stronger rand affected resources negatively‚ but had little effect on rand hedges‚ which provided some support.

At 5pm the all share index was down 0.38% to 51‚073.90 points with the blue-chip top 40 index slipping 0.42%. Platinum was the only positive index‚ gaining 0.54%. Banks lost 1.37% and industrials 0.55%. Resources were down 0.29%.

Head of dealing for emerging markets at Investec Ryan Wibberley said geopolitical tension was casting a shadow over global markets. “Trading patterns are not that much different from a few weeks ago.”

Among individual shares Standard Bank (SBK) closed 3.43% down to R140.85 after reporting interim headline earnings per share (HEPS) grew only 1%. The bank also had to write down more than R800m from losses in China emanating from fraudulent aluminium trades in that country.

Rival FirstRand (FSR) was flat on the day, with FirstRand’s market cap now more than R20bn higher than that of Standard Bank, the previous banking market cap leader.

Diversified global media group Naspers (NPN) lost 4.68% to R1,365.40 after Chinese investment holding company Tencent, of which it owns 34%, fell 2.3% in Hong Kong on projected flat mobile gaming income over the near future.

Ratings agency Fitch downgraded Naspers’s debt to junk status on Wednesday.

Among resources Glencore (GLN) fell 1.37% to R63.57.

Rand hedge SABMiller (SAB) gained 1.40% to R575.

Harmony (HAR) closed 1.23% off at R33.86 after earlier reporting a net annual loss of R1.27bn for the latest financial year. Northam (NHM) lost 1% to R45.50 yesterday after disclosing fully diluted headline earnings per share down 98.4% to 2.2c for the year ended June.

Sun International (SUI) was up 2.08% to R111.07. It said yesterday it expected diluted headline earnings per share for the year ended June 2014 to be 5%-10% lower.

JSE Ltd (JSE) closed 1.13% lower at R96.02. After the close of the market it reported interim revenue rose 9% to R869m. Staff Writer