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JSE ends slightly higher despite weak Dow
November 30, 2009
The JSE ended 86 points higher on Monday, holding on in the black despite weaker European markets and a negative opening on Wall Street.
The bourse announced earlier that it would not extend trading hours. This came after it had to delay the opening of the equity market for 50 minutes due to technical problems.
At 5pm the JSE all share index had collected 0.32%, with resources edging up 0.24%. However, gold miners declined 0.81% and platinum producers were flat, down 0.04%.
Banks were off 0.13% but financials were up 0.22% and industrials moved 0.47% higher.
The rand was bid at R7.38/$, from R7.46/$ when the JSE closed on Friday. Gold was quoted at $1,176.25 a troy ounce from $1,163.85/oz at the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1,454.50/oz, from $1,436.50/oz the bourse's previous close.
"The JSE would like to sincerely apologise for the disruption to Equity Market trading this morning in which the Market Open was delayed by 50 minutes," it said.
"To resolve a previous network routing issue experienced by the JSE, router software upgrades were implemented on the JSE's routers over the weekend. These upgrades were unsuccessful and the changes were rolled back late on Saturday afternoon. As a precaution, customers were advised by the JSE on Sunday (29 November) to be on-site early on 30 November 2009 to confirm receipt of data from the JSE.
"This morning, the JSE determined that the rollback was not fully successful and hence made the decision to delay the market open to ensure that customer connectivity was stable and that all customers had received and processed start-of-day reference data. Further corrective actions were taken by the JSE to ensure the equity market could be opened as soon as
possible, which then opened at 09:50," it explained.
Said a local trader: "We ended slightly higher on the market today, we held up quite nicely considering that European markets were down. US markets are down.
"A lot of market participants are still calling the market too high. There is uncertainty as to where the market will go.
"We will probably see a sideways movement for the next month or two," he said.
"The gold index is negative. The weaker dollar is supporting the other commodities more than gold," he added.
Dow Jones newswires reported that US stocks fell slightly on Monday, as investors were disappointed by mixed Black Friday sales results and a Dubai government official's statement that Dubai World's debt isn't guaranteed by the government.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 15 points, or 0.2%, to 10,294 recently, led by Boeing, which dropped 0.7%. United Technologies and General Electric were also weak, down 0.6% each.
The declines were held in check by financial components Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, which jumped more than 1.8% each, rebounding from their Friday declines as the Dubai official said the markets shouldn't worry about banks.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.3%. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.1%. The energy and industrials sectors led the S&P 500's drop, with energy stocks including Chesapeake Energy and Valero Energy being weighed down by a decline in crude-oil futures.
In other markets, gold futures also fell, while the dollar moved lower against the euro but was higher against the yen. Treasuries declined, with the 10-year note recently off 8/32 to yield 3.236%.
The small declines in stocks Monday came after Abdulrahman Al Saleh, director general of Dubai's Department of Finance, told state-run Dubai TV on Monday that Dubai World's debt isn't guaranteed by the Dubai government and that markets need to differentiate between the holding company and the state.
Dubai World's debt problems were revealed late on Wednesday, when the city-state's largest corporate entity asked creditors for a six-month stay on repayment of its $60 billion in debts. Stocks slumped Friday in reaction.
When the JSE closed, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was last down 0.08%.
On the JSE, Anglo American Plc firmed R1.87 to R319 and BHP Billiton added R1.27 to R228.57.
Petrochemicals group Sasol collected 80 cents to R290.80.
Highveld Steel was up R2.80, or 4.63%, to R63.33, but ArcelorMittal was down R1.45, or 1.39%, to R102.70 and Kumba Iron Ore gave up R1.80 to R252.
Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti declined R6.49, or 1.96%, to R324.01, but Harmony edged up 50 cents to R82 and Gold Fields inched up 11 cents to R108.10.
Platinum miner Anglo Platinum put on R12, or 1.60%, to R762, but Impala Platinum gave up R1.75, or 1.01%, to R171.75 and Lonmin lost R1.81 to R216.50.
Elsewhere on the JSE, brewer SABMiller fell R1.28 to R216.25 and British American Tobacco was down R2.63, or 1.15%, to R225.39.
However, Bidvest was up R3.87, or 3.34%, to R119.87 and Remgro collected 52 cents to R86.52.
At the close of local markets, the diversified investment group announced that it had witnessed a 37.2% decline in headline earnings from continuing operations from R2.067 billion to R1.298 billion for the six months ended September.
Headline earnings per share from continuing operations decreased by 37.1% from 437.7 cents to 275.3 cents.
Banking group Standard Bank weakened one rand, or 1.03%, to R95.80, but Absa gained R2.67, or 2.14%, to R127.50.
Sugar group Illovo weakened 65 cents, or 2.16%, to R29.48.
Media group Caxton was off 25 cents, or 1.67%, to R14.70.
Among retailers, Spar declined R1.80, or 2.65%, to R66.20, but Shoprite collected 64 cents, or 1.04%, to R61.96 and Steinhoff was up 23 cents, or 1.29%, to R18.03.
Construction group Murray & Roberts weakened 56 cents, or 1.16%, to R47.84 and WBHO lost R1.45, or 1.37%, to R104.55.
Telecommunications group MTN Group firmed R3.80, or 3.30%, to R118.80 while Vodacom declined R1.01, or 1.74%, to R57 and Telkom lost R1.07, or 2.79%, to R37.32.
Pioneer Foods advanced R2.39, or 6.83%, to R37.40. It earlier reported diluted headline earnings per share of 349.8 cents for the year ended September 2009 from 285.3 cents a year ago. Headline earnings per ordinary share at 355 cents were up 22%.
A final dividend of 89 cents per share was declared up 35% from a year ago. The total dividend declared for the year amounted to 125.0 cents - up 30% from last year's 96.0 cents.
Revenue at R16.3 billion was up 9% and operating profit before items of a capital nature was up 34% at R1.2 billion.
Omnia Holdings was off 50 cents to R58.50. It earlier reported a diluted headline loss per share of 217.8 cents for the six months ended September 2009 after headline earnings of 803.5 cents per share for the same period a year ago.
The group reported a loss of R99 million for the half year, down from a R373 million profit for the first half of last year, as the company's performance continued to be impacted by depressed market conditions and the 21% strengthening of the rand.
Revenue as down 22% to R4.2 billion and operating profit decreased by R647 million to a loss of R52 million.
The basic loss per share was 218.2 cents compared with a profit of 839.0 cents per share a year ago.
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