Northam and Mustek help to cheer the JSE

The JSE was buoyant on Friday morning, undaunted by a 21% crash in the share price of US food producer Kraft Heinz.

The group created by a $49bn merger in 2015, said in its quarterly results on Thursday night that it was writing down the value of its Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands by $15.4bn.

Dow Jones reported Kraft Heinz “has been struggling to keep up with consumer shifts towards simpler ingredients and healthier food. Many of the company’s brands, like Jell-O desserts and Kool-Aid drink mix, clash with current trends.”

The JSE’s all share index was up 0.32% to 55,664 points at 9.20am.

Computer hardware seller Mustek rose 7.4% to R8.70 after releasing its interim results for the six months to end-December.

Mustek grew net profit 32% to R57.6m, while revenue was nearly flat at R2.7bn.

“The growth in fibre to the home is not only assisting our fibre sales, but also increasing the demand for new devices in order to fully benefit from the faster internet speeds,” the company said in its results statement.