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Johannesburg - The local bourse was buoyed by Naspers which jumped on the back of an impressive set of results from its Hang Seng listed associate, Tencent Holdings.
Tencent Holdings delivered a strong set of numbers which beat analyst estimates, as net income for the second quarter was recorded at 18.2 billion yuan on the back of an estimate of 13.5 billion yuan. A mixture of mobile games and WeChat have driven this growth which is the best growth the company has recorded in 7 years.
General costs have risen by 54% but this is mainly due to capital expenditure on artificial intelligence and technology research. Earlier on Tencent Holdings closed up 1.38% on the Hang Seng, while Naspers [JSE:NPN] eventually closed up 2.93% on the JSE.
Other top movers on the JSE included Anglo American [JSE:AGL] which traded firmer on the imminent dividend payment from its subsidiary Kumba Iron Ore [JSE:KIO], which is expected to be around R3.5bn. The stock closed up 3.18%. Old Mutual [JSE:OML] and MTN [JSE:MTN] also had a positive day gaining 2.53% and 2.35% respectively.
On the major losers, Famous Brands [JSE:FBR] released a trading statement which indicated that they are expecting their upcoming results for the 6 months ending 31 August to be weaker than those reported in the prior comparable period. The company anticipates trading conditions in South Africa and the UK where they own the Gourmet Burger Kitchen to remain challenging. The stock closed the day down 7.94%.
Italtile [JSE:ITE] and City Lodge Hotels [JSE:CLH] released relatively subdued sets of results today which both attributed the weaker results to a decrease in consumer discretionary spending, lower consumer confidence and slower economic growth. Italtile managed to turn into the green towards the close as it ended the day up 1.47%, however City Lodge Hotels traded weaker to close the day down 4.51%.
The JSE All-Share Index closed up 1.00%, whilst the blue chip Top-40 Index firmed by 1.14%. The Industrials Index was up 0.97% whilst the Financials Index firmed by 0.98%. The Resources Index gained 1.40% on the back of firmer commodity prices which buoyed JSE listed miners.
Gold was trading in the green today after two consecutive sessions of losses. The precious metal managed to reach an intra-day high $1 275.21 per ounce and was recorded at $1 272.85 per ounce when the JSE closed.
Platinum and palladium jumped today with both commodities trading significantly in the green. Platinum reached an intra-day high of $970.23 per ounce whilst palladium reached a high of $908.09 per ounce. The metals were recorded $969.38 per ounce and $906.09 per ounce respectively just after the JSE closed.
Brent Crude was slightly mixed in today’s session ahead of the release of the weekly US Crude Oil Inventories numbers. The inventories number indicated a draw of 8.95 million barrels on the back of an estimate of 3 million barrels. Brent Crude was trading at $50.85 per barrel just after the JSE close.
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