WATCH: Stock picks — Absa and Astral

Paul Chakaduka from GT247.com chose to go short on Absa and Joseph Busha from JM Busha chose Astral as his stock pick of the day.

Chakaduka said the financial sector was likely to be under pressure for the next six months to a year due to weakness in the rand and sluggish domestic growth.“

Absa is going through a restructuring/rebranding phase and they are looking to identify themselves and by the time that this happens their stocks would possibly be down to the mid R140s,” he said.

Busha said Astral’s results were surprisingly good. “Looking in terms of pure valuation, the forward price-earnings ratio is trading at a discount, their debt is down 60% and their net asset value has increased.”