Ukraine jitters temper gains

THE JSE closed firmer on Friday, but was off the day’s high, after unconfirmed reports of violence in Ukraine sent jitters across the world’s equity markets.

Dow Jones Newswires reported that Ukrainian troops attacked a Russian convoy that had entered its territory overnight.

By 5pm, the all share index had added 0.36%, ending the day at 51,257.72 points from an earlier high of 51,482.21 points earlier. The blue-chip top 40 index closed up 0.42%.

The market’s gains were supported by news from diversified mining giant BHP Billiton, which said on Friday that it planned to divest from a range of its assets such as aluminium and manganese to focus more on commodities like iron ore, copper and coal, where it derives the bulk of its profits.

“The combination of a possible share buyback and the restructuring, which means a more focused group, really pushed the share price up today,” Momentum Asset Management’s Wayne McCurrie said.

The stock closed up 2.85% at R365.10, paring earlier gains due the weaker rand.

Gold-mining stocks posted the biggest losses on the local equity market, falling 1.74% after the gold price dropped during the day.

Banks were also weaker on Friday, with the index dropping 1.59%, due in part to the rand’s losses, which raised concern about inflation, and also because of profit-taking following strong recent gains.

Among individual shares on the JSE, Harmony Gold (HAR) dropped 3.87% to R32.55 and AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) declined 1.98% to R182.10

FirstRand (FSR) led losses in the banking sector, giving back 2.38% to R43.10.

Lewis Group (LEW) dropped 2.41% to R58.21 after the household furniture and electrical appliances group said bad debts rose 30% in the four months to July, and sales fell.

Gainers included miner Anglo American (AGL), which lifted 1.12% to R281.13.

City Lodge (CLH) rose 1.27% to R121.26 after reporting an 11% increase in first-half profit due to higher occupancy rates at its hotels.

Packaging manufacturer Mpact (MPT) surged 5.33% to R33.40 after delivering strong results on Thursday.

South African near-dated futures pared gains in late trade on Friday as global markets reversed course amid reports of renewed violence in Ukraine.

At 5.30pm, the near-dated Alsi was up 0.27% at 45,981 points. The number of contracts traded was 24,774 from 22,892 on Thursday. Staff Writers