A bright spark on an all-red JSE board, Liberty Holdings added more than a quarter to its share price after Standard Bank announced it is making a bid for full ownership of the diversified financial services group. Standard Bank already owns 54% of Liberty.
At close on the JSE, the stock was 22.7% firmer after Standard Bank offered Liberty shareholders R25.50 in cash per share, together with 0.5 Standard Bank shares per Liberty share held. The offer is almost 33% higher than Wednesday’s share price, reports Fin24.
Standard Bank fell 2.81%, dragging sector peers Nedbank (-1.73%), Capitec (-0.05%) and Investec (-0.45%) all lower. Absa and Rand Merchant Holdings bucked the trend adding 0.04% and 1.27% respectively.
Sasol tracked the faltering oil price with a massive 7.7% drop. Brent crude was last trading down 1% at $74 a barrel.
Steinhoff gave up 5.39% following a 3rd quarter trade update from subsidiary Pepco Group, the fast-growing, pan-European variety discount retailer which owns the PEPCO and Dealz brands in mainland Europe and Poundland in the UK.
Naspers advanced for a fourth straight session, adding 1.79% on the back of advances in Chinese internet giant Tencent in which it holds a 29% stake through subsidiary Prosus (+0.41%).
Among the losers were also market heavyweight Richemont (-1.91%), mining majors BHP (-0.75%) and Anglo American (-1.23%), retailer Pepkor (-3.13%) and renewable ene. Plc. Insurer Liberty Holdings Ltd. soared the most on record as majority shareholder Standard Bank Group Ltd. said it plans to acquire the shares it doesn’t already own.
Meanwhile, calm returned to the rand after a volatile start to the week amid deadly waves of violence and looting in main economic provinces KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. The local unit was last trading 0.39% firmer at R14.53 to the US dollar from its previous overnight close in New York. Despite the greenback trading on the front foot.
In the commodities market gold held onto its gains, last trading at $1,822/oz, while palladium came under some selling pressure, losing 1.5% to trade back at $2,785/oz, according to TreasuryONE. Platinum traded at $1,135/oz.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.5415
EURUSD 1.1814
EURZAR 17.1741
GBPUSD 1.3858
GBPZAR 20.1455
AUDZAR 10.8069
CADZAR 11.5815
CNYZAR 2.2487
ZARJPY 7.5643
CHFZAR 15.8339
USDAOA 646.54
Equities and bonds
R186 7.56%
US 10 Year 1.35%
JSE -0.49%
FTSE -0.82%
S&P 500 -0.25%
Commodities
Gold $1 821.70
Plat $1 138.63
Plad $2 779.57
Rhod $19 690.00
Irid $5 590.00
Ruth $748.00
Copp $9 436.80
Brent $74.03
Iron Ore 62.5% $217.94
Coal API4 $115.00
Gold ZAR R26 501.36
Plat ZAR R16 564.33
Indicators brought to you by TreasuryONE
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