JSE opens weaker as Naspers stumbles

The JSE opened weaker on Monday as Naspers dragged down the market with the market heavyweight experiencing another weak month.

Naspers is down 6.31% so far in July. It fell 11.59% in March and 6.42% in December 2017.

The latest pullback relates to a sharp fall in Tencent in morning trade on the Hang Seng, with the Chinese internet and gaming company, in which Naspers holds a third, retreating 2.5%.

Naspers has also been under pressure amid shareholder criticism of its dual-voting structure, as well as the perceived excessive pay package of CEO Bob van Dijk.

The two issues are related as Naspers obfuscated the real opposition to the CEO’s pay package, expressed at the group’s annual general meeting, by bundling the votes of A and N shareholders together.

One A share holds the same voting power as 1,000 N shares.

At 9.am Naspers was 2.84% lower at R3,262.61. It is down 5.3% so far in 2018.

The Dow closed 0.3% lower on Friday, despite better than expected US GDP numbers for June, as the market looked forward amid concern if the present pace of growth in the US could be maintained on an escalated global trade war.

Asian markets are trading lower this morning, with possible changes to the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ’s) monetary policy this week weighing on sentiment.

The Japanese central bank’s decision could offer fresh perspective on the state of the global economy, said TreasuryOne trade Wichard Cilliers.

“Global levels of risk aversion will either rise or drop in response,” he said.

The market showed little reaction to the latest local money supply and credit data, released soon after the market’s opening.

Private sector credit extension (PSCE) grew at an annual rate of 5.68% in June, from 4.54% in May, Reserve Bank data showed.

Asian markets were weaker with the Nikkei 225 down 0.74% and the Hang Seng 0.37%. Brent crude was steady at $74.45 a barrel.

At 10.02am the all share was 0.51% lower at 56,872.80 points and the top 40 dropped 0.63%. Industrials shed 0.77%, platinums 0.64%, resources 0.39% and banks 0.2%. The gold index rose 1.01% and food and drug retailers 0.43%.

Sasol lost 1.84% to R507.88.

Sibanye-Stillwater rose 2.56% to R7.60.

FirstRand slipped 0.58% to R66.61.

Massmart regained 4.06% to R117.80.

Nepi Rockcastle rose 1.19% to R119.10 among property stocks.

Spur rose 2.35% to R26.10.

Source: businesslive.co.za