JSE set for mixed start on Friday as Mr Price reports
SA’s main bourse will likely open mixed on Friday as global markets trade with caution after US President Donald Trump warned Mexico of impending trade tariffs and Chinese manufacturing data missed expectations.
China’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for May showed a bigger decline than expected, while Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican goods unless the country curbed illegal immigration to the US.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.2% on Friday while the Shanghai Composite and Australia’s main benchmark were flat. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was 0.8% down.
But Chinese internet and gaming giant Tencent bucked the trend, rising 1.1% in Hong Kong. That suggests a positive opening for major shareholder Naspers on the JSE.
BHP Group was 0.2% up in Australia.
Mr Price is due to publish annual results on the JSE on Friday morning. The retailer is expected to report a 6.7% increase in headline earnings per share, FNB Securities said in a note, citing Bloomberg data.
Huge Group will publish financial statements for the year to end-February. The company is expected to report headline earnings per share growth of between 15% and 25%.
Finbond is due to publish results for the year to end-February. The company has warned that headline earnings per share decreased by 43.4% to 53.6%.
Investment holding company Hulisani will also publish full-year results. It said recently it made a headline loss per share of between 77c and 94c.
Efora Energy is due to release results for the year to end-February. It has warned that its annual headline loss per share grew by more than 20%.
A handful of data releases are expected in SA on Friday, including SA’s balance of trade figures.
The trade account is forecast to have recorded a smaller surplus of R2.5bn in April, compared with R5bn in March, “as trade activity is typically affected by the Easter and public holidays”, Investec economist Kamilla Kaplan said last week.
That would mean the trade account in the year to date is “in balance”, versus a deficit of R16.8bn in the same period of 2018, Kaplan said.
After posting gains on Thursday in the wake of SA’s cabinet announcement, the rand was about 0.7% weaker versus major currencies on Friday morning.
The local currency was at R14.82/$, R18.68/£, and R16.49/€.
Source: businesslive.co.za
