The JSE ended the week on a sour note, slipping for a second straight session after hitting a new all-time high earlier in the week on strong earnings reports and a rally in industrial metals and bank stocks. Ongoing positive corporate earnings updates buffered the slide, keeping the All Share index above 76,000 points.
Anglo American coal spin-off Thungela Resources led the charge, jumping more than 11% after saying it will post R65.81 to R66.76 a share in full year earnings compared to a loss in the previous year. The numbers are not entirely comparable because this is the first 12 months Thungela has been in existence. It also bought back some shares in November, reports Miningmx.
Angloplat, another Anglo American subsidiary, added 5.29% after posting that full year headline earnings for 2021 would be more than double the previous year’s after it rapidly sold a backlog of platinum group metals and benefited from a 22% increase in rand basket prices. Platinum peer Northam jumped 3.71% after an independent board advised Royal Bafokeng (+0.35%) shareholders to accept Impala Platinum’s (+0.76%) “fair and reasonable” offer to buy them out.
Bidvest, whose diverse interests span cleaning services to used cars and freight management, had its best day in more than 13 years on Friday, reports BusinessLive. The share price soared over 10% before paring gains to end the day on 9.54% after the group said it expects profits to rise up to 40% in its half-year to end-December.
Textainer Group dipped 1.75% despite core profit rising by almost a half during the year to end-December as Covid-19 disruptions helped to bump up the shipping container’s fleet utilisation to almost 100%. Grindrod Shipping, which announced it will release its fourth quarter results on 16 February after market closing in New York, was up 4.83% after a report that rated it the top stock in the marine shipping industry.
Tilting the All Share scale 0.26% to the downside and tracking losses in Chinese giant Tencent were heavyweights Naspers (-1.54%) and Prosus (-3.01%).
On the metals market, gold held its ground against the stronger dollar at $1,828 at local markets close to end the week $20 stronger than Monday’s level, comments TreasuryONE Palladium and platinum, however, were both under pressure, with the metals plunging 2.32% and 0.78% respectively to last trade at $2,205.61 and $1,018.95 a fine ounce.
Mining counters suffering were Harmony (-3.62%), Gold Fields (-2.86%) and Anglogold (-2.08%). Sasol slipped 1.46% despite a rebound in the price of Brent Crude to $92.50 a barrel.
Exxaro gained 2.70% while BHP lost 2.23% and Anglo American 0.04%.
On the forex front, the rand closed the week firmly on the front foot despite some high inflation in the US and a dollar being stronger than Monday morning, comments TreasuryONE. “Starting the week out in the R15.50s, we saw the local unit briefly break below R15.00 for the first time since early November last year. The current levels, R15.05/R15.10, have been a resistance for a sustained break stronger on a number of occasions and look key if we want to trade further back towards R14.80 where the 200-day moving average is set.”
The unit was last changing hands at R15.08 against the US dollar.
