The JSE opened positively on Friday, as global stocks recovered after China cut a key leading benchmark to support its economy but the local bourse traded in the red during the afternoon session to eventually close 0.96% down with the All Share Index at 67,575 points.
Johan Rupert’s Swiss-based luxury goods holding company, Richemont, recorded a 46% increase in sales for the year to end-March while profit was also up a healthy 61% and the company also declared a special dividend.
But the share price plunged 10% immediately after the news was released and continued to trade down eventually giving up 12.87%
Bloomberg reports the earnings were lower than expected while Reuters says the share price fell sharply after the company said discussion about its “Luxury New Retail” partnership is taking some time.
JSE heavyweight Prosus said it was looking for a buyer for its Russian online classifieds business Avito.
Avito is the world’s largest Russian-language online classifieds business and is one of two Russian businesses Prosus has a stake in, the other is a 25.7% stake in the VK Group.
Prosus shares gained 0.65% while parent company Naspers saw a 1.19% increase in share price.
The Foschini Group posted record sales despite losing 82,000 trading hours due to load shedding. The retailer said it expects its basic headline profit per share to be 403% to 413% higher for the year to end-March, compared to the previous year.
The group’s share shot up sharply on the back of the news before settling off in the afternoon session and slipping 0.10% down.
