Murray & Roberts shares gain on news of little impact of Covid-19 on operations

CAPE TOWN – Murray & Roberts’s share price gained 19.4percent to R6.90 on Friday afternoon after it assured the market that the global engineering projects it was busy with had experienced little impact from the spread of the coronavirus to date.

Later in the day, it closed up 14.19percent to R6.60.

The group said although it was too early to provide an accurate estimate of the potential effect on earnings this and next year, it did not anticipate any of its projects being cancelled.

After a week of major global market volatility, the company’s share price was, nevertheless, 28percent lower than the price it traded at the previous Friday.

The international mining and resources engineering group, with projects mainly in Australasia, the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa, said its balance sheet was strong, and a R50billion order book at December 31 was expected to support growth through the 2021 financial year.