Eskom may shock markets — here’s what to look for

A lull in JSE results ends on Monday with interim results from Anglo American Platinum (Amplats). Its fellow Anglo American subsidiary, Kumba Iron Ore, reports on Tuesday, and the parent group on Thursday.

State-owned Eskom is scheduled to release its annual report for the 2018 financial year on Monday.

Energy analyst Tom Blom e-mailed a list of things to look out for in Eskom’s results. These included R30bn in derivative losses emanating from the Gupta capture of Eskom’s treasury, and the cost of 30,000 unnecessary employees — several thousand of which Blom suspects are “ghost workers”.

Amplats said on July 16 it expected to report on Monday that interim headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the six months to end-June were more than four times the matching period’s R2.85.

Amplats said it expected to report a turnaround in basic earnings per share to between R7.78 and R8.66 from the matching period’s loss per share of R4.53.

Alphamin Resources and Astoria Investments may also release results on Monday.

Stats SA is scheduled to release six reports on Monday. These include May’s tourism and migration at 9am and tourist accommodation at 10am.

May’s land transport survey is scheduled for release at 11.30am and food and beverages sales at 1pm.

Stats SA is also scheduled to release its midyear population estimates at 11am, and June’s insolvency statistics at 2.30pm.

Tencent was down 1.8% to HK$369.80 in Hong Kong ahead of the JSE’s opening on Monday, indicating its 31%-owner Naspers may drag the local bourse down.

In Sydney, BHP was down 1.2% to A$32.51, another bad augur for the JSE.

The rand was trading at R13.41 to the dollar, R15.73 to the euro and R17.62 to the pound at 6.50am.