A pullback in the rand’s rally lifted South African rand-hedge stocks like mining house Anglo American in morning trade on Thursday, pulling the overall market higher despite slipping gold shares.
Volatile technology stocks also swung into focus after IT firm Datatec reported a steeper than expected dive in profits late on Wednesday and peer Dimension Data posted a drop in earnings that was in line with forecasts.
At 0840 GMT, the all share index was up 0,8% to 9,817.82, with gainers outpacing losers 112 to 86.
South African network integrator Didata, was up four percent to R3,95. The company showed an 82% drop in headline earnings to 2,3 US cents a share from a previous 12,8 cents. Analysts had forecast earnings falling to 2,42 cents/share.
But peer Datatec skidded over 20% to a low of R6,50 on Thursday after it reported a 91% plunge in first-half earnings released on Wednesday. It was 12,6% lower at R7,30 by 0840 GMT.
Datatec said headline earnings per share crumbled to 12 cents in the six months to the end of September from 142 cents previously. Analysts had forecast a drop to 69,8 cents.
World number two brewer SABMiller, which reported better than expected results, sagged. It was down 2,4% to R68,50.
The gold index extended its Wednesday losses despite slightly firmer gold prices after the World Gold Council said world gold demand dropped in the third quarter.
South Africa’s second biggest gold producer Gold Fields lost 2,2% to R107.
”Gold is overbought, it’s now coming down from those high levels,” the trader said. Spot gold was trading $318,00 a troy ounce, up from New York’s Wednesday close of $317,55.
The overall market was held up by big hitters like Anglo American, which accounts for 15% of the overall bourse, as they drew strength from a slight dip in the rand after a strong rally in the currency at the start of the week.
Anglo, like many South African blue-chips, tends to benefit when the rand weakens since it draws much of its earnings in foreign currency and pays costs in rand.
Anglo was up one percent at R134,25 by 0836 GMT. – Reuters