JSE likely to suffer with China on US holiday

Though a quiet Monday on the international front, with US markets generally closed for its Labor Day holiday, it is a busy day for JSE results and local economic data.

Results are expected from services group Bidvest, casino and hotel group Sun International, and tertiary education group Stadio.

The first trading day in September sees Absa publish its monthly manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for August at 11am, and the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) releases August’s new vehicle sales at about 2pm.

According to the Trading Economics consensus, August’s PMI will decline to 51.1 points from July’s 51.5, and Augusts’s new vehicle sales will rise to about 48,300 units from July’s 47,880.

Asian markets fretted ahead of the JSE’s opening over US President Donald Trump pushing ahead with his threatened 25% tariffs on an additional $200bn worth of Chinese imports.

Tencent was down 3.1% to HK$329.60 ahead of the JSE’s opening on Monday morning, indicating its 31%-owner Naspers and in turn the JSE will continue sliding for a third trading day.

Tencent contributed to a 0.95% drop in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, while mainland China’s Shanghai composite was down 0.94% and Tokyo’s Topix was down 0.95%.

BHP was down 0.5% to A$33.04 in Sydney.

The rand was trading at R14.76 to the dollar, R17.13 to the euro and R19.08 to the pound at 6.30am.

Bidvest said on August 22 it expected to report on Monday its headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the year to end-June increased by about 11%.

Sun International said on August 21 it expected to report a return to profitability for the six months to end-June.

Sun International said it expected to report HEPS of between R1.12 and R1.35 from the matching period’s headline loss per share of 78c.

“During the period under review, group income increased by 4% to R7.9bn. South African comparable income — excluding Time Square, Fish River and Morula — was up by 1%.

“In Chile, income increased by 2% with Monticello income up by 6%. With the closure of the Sun Nao casino in December 2017 and the downscaling of the Ocean Sun casino’s operation, income from Colombia and Panama was well down on the prior corresponding period,” the trading statement said.

Stadio, the tertiary education group unbundled from Curro on October 2017, said it expected to report interim HEPS of between 3.2c and 3.8c.

This would mark a turnaround for the group which reported a headline loss per share of 1.2c for the year to end-December.

Anchor Group warned shareholders on August 8 it expected to report a decline in interim HEPS of up to 14%.

Anchor said it expected to report a basic loss per share of up to R1.08 due to an expected write-down of its investment in an offshore hedge fund.

“Trading conditions were difficult in the period, with local and offshore markets delivering negative returns and stock market trading volumes were low,” the trading statement said.