|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
Diagonal Street shakes off the holiday m... |
Diagonal Street shakes off the holiday mood to end strongerTHE JSE closed the week stronger despite a spate of public holidays which appeared to leave some dealers slightly disorientated. Many traders took Friday off to enjoy a long weekend and one who was at work told a news wire service: "It is rather nice to come into work and have a break from the holidays." Nonetheless, the market closed stronger on Friday on the back of bullish US unemployment data and renewed positive sentiment towards Wall Street. The all-share index gained 77 points over the week to end at 7 149 and the industrial index was up 133 points to finish at 8 539. But the gold index again ended on a low note: down 53 points at 1 182. Dealers ascribed this to the bullion price, which was unable to break above the $340/oz level and to disappointing gold quarterly results. However, blue chips appeared to be back in favour this week with some showing positive gains. Amic climbed 550c on Friday to close at R199 - a R17.50 rise over the week. "I hope it is the start of something bigger," said one dealer. On Tuesday, the JSE experienced a record day of turnover with more than R2.171-billion worth of shares changing hands. This beat the previous high of R1.506-billion set last Friday by over R500-million. A huge deal in over 18 million NBS Holdings, worth about R1.359-billion, was seen as largely responsible for the high. Traders said the deal was related to RMB Holdings' sale of a 22.2% in NBS to financial services group Board of Executors. BOE paid R1.37-billion, or 68.35c a share, for the stake. As announced in March, BOE is to team up with the newly merged NBS and Boland Bank Holdings to create South Africa's fifth largest banking group. Dealers say these tie-ups helped lift the counters involved to new all-time highs. NBS closed the week 200c higher at R84; BOE added 500c to end at R135; and BOE Corp, at 710c a share, was up 60c. RMB Holdings peaked at R11.65 on Wednesday - 85c higher than the previous week's close - but had dipped 5c by Friday. Malbak, in the final throws of its unbundling, moved from the JSE's industrial holding board to the packaging and printing sector on Tuesday. It finished the day at 710c and at 728c on Friday, in line with market predictions. IT group Fintech hit a one-year high of R80 this week after announcing a 41% rise in attributable earnings. Its sister company, Powertech, moved up 8.6% or 65c on Friday to finish at 825c ahead of the news, published today, that headline earnings surged 50% over the year. However, Afrox came off 50c on Friday to close at R16 after announcing a lower than expected rise in interim earnings after extremely slow trading conditions in the last quarter of 1996. Personal placement group Technihire, which warned shareholders on Wednesday of possible losses, closed the week 17c lower at 60c a share. Zilla Efrat
|
Due to technical problems, there will be no shareguide and financial indicators this week.