JSE likely to recover from ‘Black Monday’

Following a “Black Monday”, on which the JSE’s all share index fell 1.7% while the Nasdaq index fell 2.1% and Frankfurt’s DAX 30 fell 2.5%, Asian markets were relatively calm on Tuesday morning.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.2%, with Tencent down 0.26% to HK$387.80. Naspers, which tends to track Tencent, fell 3% to R3,207 on Monday.

Sydney’s ASX 200 was down 0.22% on Tuesday, with BHP down 1.7% to A$32.42 and South32 down 1.8% to A$3.54.

On Monday, BHP closed 2.22% lower at R290.70 on the JSE, and South32 ended 1.76% lower at R35.71.

The rand was trading at R13.54 to the dollar, R15.86 to the euro and R17.99 to the pound at 6.35am.

Old Mutual shareholders will discover on Tuesday whether the split from Quilter was profitable.

On Friday, Old Mutual’s share price closed at R37.83. On Monday, Old Mutual shareholders received one Quilter share for every three Old Mutual shares held. Quilter ended its first day on the JSE at R26.80.

Provided Old Mutual shares do not fall by more than a third of Quilter’s share price — which means they trade for about R28.90 on Tuesday — the unbundling will have “unlocked value” as promised so far.

Wescoal said on June 22 it expected to report on Tuesday that its headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the year to end-March increased more than fourfold from the prior year’s 11.3c.

“The significant increase in group profitability was driven by continued strong production from mining operations as well as from synergies realised from the recent acquisition of Keaton Energy,” Wescoal said.

In a strategic update released in January, Wescoal said: “The enlarged business now has coal resources well in excess of 300-million tonnes, four operating mines, three processing plants and significant interests in coal supply-chain infrastructure.”

Chemicals group Omnia said on it website it will release its results for the year to end-March on Tuesday. It has not released a trading update, as would be required if its earnings differed by more than 20% from the prior year.

The Reserve Bank is scheduled to release its April business cycle indicators on Tuesday morning.

The Reserve Bank’s leading indicator provides a clue to how well the economy will be doing in about six months.

The March figure took the average for the first quarter of 2018 to 107.5 points, a 6% rise from the prior quarter — foreshadowing a rise in the business cycle and in turn GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2018.