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Skittish dealers break record in week of... |
Skittish dealers break record in week of frenetic share tradingTHE JSE has reported its highest trading value transacted in a week in its 108-year history. Trading value amounted to R3,2-billion this week, surpassing the previous record of R2,8-billion set in mid-February, the start of the latest rand crisis. Dealers described this week's trade as nervous, with market sentiment knocked by the continuing slide of the rand. The currency fell to a record low of R4,75 to the dollar on Wednesday, but made up some of its losses to stabilise at about R4,69 on Friday afternoon. Long bonds rebounded on Friday on the back of a firmer currency and positive sentiment in the market. At the close the government R150 was 12 basis points stronger at a yield of 15,84%, from Thursday's close of 15,96% and the Eskom R168 was yielding 16,05 - 9,5 basis points better than the previous close of 16,15%. However, the gold price continued to fall through the week, fixing in London at $379,50 on Friday. Despite this, the all-gold index finished 19 points higher than the previous week at 1 723. A surge in Gold Fields' share price re-ignited speculation that the group could be the target of a takeover bid by an international mining company. The share jumped from R124 on October 21, hitting a year high of R153,50 on Thursday before easing to close at R147,50 on Friday. Gold Fields recently posted earnings before capital spending of R274,4-million for the third quarter. This was sharply down from R355,9-million in the second quarter, fuelling talk about a restructure or takeover. Poor sentiment saw the industrial index close the week 65 points lower at 8 194, but a number of shares showed solid gains. After providing more details on its unbundling on Monday, Malbak moved up steadily to finish the week 165c higher at R23. Masterfridge, in which NSA Investments recently bought a stake, continued its good run on the back of speculation that it was about to buy Malbak's appliance company, Defy, in the unbundling. Masterfridge, which traded at a low of 250c shortly after its listing in April, reached a new high of 490c on Thursday, before falling back 5c on Friday. Hosken Consolidated Investments, which has a cautionary out, had another good week, gaining 40c to close at a new high of 460c on Friday. Newly-listed Carson also reached an all-time high of 700c after it announced a rise of 146% in interim earnings on Friday. Following news that it had formed a strategic alliance with Coronation Holdings, Trencor added 325c on the week to close at R23,25, while Mobile rose 84c to 584c. Coronation Holdings came off from its high of R44,40 the previous week to end at R43,20. Ahead of its results for the six months to September, electronic and telecommunications group Plessey fell 95c during the week to finish at R11,45. It reported an 11,4% rise in earnings despite a drop in telecommunications deliveries. On Friday afternoon it announced attributable income of R29,5-million. Earnings a share were only marginally up at 21,9c.
Zilla Efrat
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