South African oil and chemicals group Sasol on Tuesday touched an all-time high on the JSE Securities Exchange on the group’s strong earnings outlook.
At 2.45pm, Sasol was quoted at R139,40, up 90 cents or 0,7% from the stock’s Monday close of R138,50. Earlier, Sasol touched R140,88, eclipsing its previous all-time high of R136,25 achieved on February 17 this year.
On Tuesday afternoon, Sasol announced that it expects that its headline earnings per share for the half-year ending December 2004 to be about 60% higher than in the previous comparative period.
For the half-year to December 2003, Sasol reported that headline earnings per share were 397 cents.
“While the benefit of higher oil prices was more than offset by the impact of adverse currency effects, the performance of the chemicals portfolio was substantially better due to improved margins and heightened focus on core businesses,” Sasol added.
Earnings per share for the six-month period ended December 31 2004 are expected to be about 45% higher than those of the previous corresponding reporting period, Sasol said.
Sasol’s attributable earnings per share for the 2003 half-year were 408 cents.
Should prevailing exchange rates, oil prices and chemical margins continue, the earnings per share in the second half of the financial year should be more or less equal to those of the first half, Sasol added.
The existing I-Net Bridge consensus of analysts expects headline earnings per share of 1 332 cents for the group’s 2004 financial year, up from 925 cents in the 2003 financial year.
Sasol will release its interim results for the half-year ended December 31 2004 on March 7. — I-Net Bridge