The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) was drifting in the red in noon trade on Tuesday, in line with weaker world markets.
However, dealers said that there were no clear trends and that the local bourse seemed to be biding its time ahead of the release of consumer inflation data on Wednesday and the South African Reserve Bank monetary policy committee (MPC) announcement on interest rates the following day.
At 12.06pm, the all-share and all-share industrial indices were 0,25% and 0,37% softer respectively. Financials had eased 0,11%, while the banks index was down a marginal 0,07%. Resources were 0,24% in the red, the gold mining index was flat (+0,02%), as was the platinum mining index (-0,06%).
The rand was quoted at R6,68 per dollar from R6,61 when the JSE closed on Monday, while gold was quoted at $400,60 an ounce from $399,75/oz at the JSE’s last close.
“GDP [gross domestic product] was softer than expected, but it is not affecting the market at all,” a dealer said.
He added that volumes were also reasonably light.
“The rand is weaker, but it is not helping. The JSE seems to be in slipstream and following world markets at the moment. There are no real trends. People might be waiting to see what CPIX is and the MPC is also important. Our market is in a state of flux.”
While the JSE’s heaviest-weighted stock, London-listed diversified miner Anglo American, was up R1,20 at R163, BHP Billiton was off 1,79% or R1,11 at R60,89.
AngloGold added 1,14% or R3,10 to R276 in morning trade, Gold Fields gained 20 cents to R81,30, but Harmony weakened 1,37% or R1,44 to R103,45.
AngloPlat eased two rand to R281 and Impala dipped one rand to R535.
Synthetic fuels group Sasol fell 70 cents to R101.
On the industrial market, Swiss-listed luxury goods group Richemont retreated five cents to R17,25.
Cellular network operator MTN Group gave up 30 cents to R29,90 and Telkom was 55 cents weaker at R69,15.
Steel giant Iscor was 40 cents softer at R32,50, while media group Naspers plunged 3,33% or R1,45 to R42,05.
Food group Tiger Brands, however, ticked up 74 cents to R84,75 after trading as high as R85 — its lifetime best.
Tiger Brands said on Monday that it saw its interim headline and attributable earnings to March 31 2004 up by between 10% and 20% compared with the previous comparative period.
However, the group warned that it expected more subdued growth in profit in the second half of the financial year ending in September.
On the financial front, Liberty International plc leaped 1,22% or R1,09 to R90,39 and Standard Bank strengthened 20 cents to R40,60.
FirstRand, however, fell four cents to R9,26 and Absa was down 24 cents at R46,50.
Nedcor tumbled 2,5% or R1,60 to R62,40 and its parent company, Old Mutual, was seven cents in the red at R11,58.
“It looks like Nedcor is going to be under pressure for a while. Its results were lousy and the R5-billion rights offer is also not good. People are also worried that the balance sheet is not clean and that there are still skeletons in the closet. People are not worried so much about the results as to what is going to happen going forward. R5-billion is a lot of cash to ask shareholders to shell out,” the dealer commented.
Nedcor reported a R1,6-billion loss for the 12 months ended December. Headline earnings shrunk from R2,5-billion the previous year to just R55-million.
Headline earnings per share plummeted from 1 364 cents to 542 cents, which was worse than an I-Net Bridge consensus forecast of 646,5 cents per share.
Nedcor also announced that it would raise R5-billion via a rights offer.
South Africa’s real gross domestic product at market prices on a quarter-on-quarter (q/q) seasonally annualised and adjusted (saa) basis rose by 1,3% in the fourth quarter of 2003 from a 1,1% increase in the third quarter of 2003, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Tuesday.
This brought growth to 1,9% in 2003 compared with 3,6% in 2002 and 2,7% in 2001. The National Treasury forecast for growth in 2003 was 1,9%, rising to 2,9% in 2004.
According to a survey of economists, fourth-quarter 2003 GDP growth was expected to have almost doubled to a median forecast of 2,1% on a q/q saa basis.
South Africa’s consumer price index excluding mortgage changes (CPIX), which is used by the South African Reserve Bank for its inflation target, is expected to ease to a record low 3,9% year-on-year (y/y) from December’s 4,0% y/y.
This would mean it would be the fourth consecutive month that the CPIX has been below the mid-point of the Reserve Bank’s target range.
The CPIX has only been calculated back to January 1997. The range of forecasts for CPIX is from 3,6% y/y to 4,2% y/y. — I-Net Bridge