Northam and Mustek help to cheer the JSE
An overnight US slump led by Kraft Heinz failed to spoil the JSE’s buoyant mood on Friday morning
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 $15.4bn.
Dow Jones reported Kraft Heinz “has been struggling to keep up with consumer shifts towards simpler ingredients and healthier food. Many of the company’s brands, like Jell-O desserts and Kool-Aid drink mix, clash with current trends.”
The JSE’s all share index was up 0.32% to 55,664 points at 9.20am.
Computer hardware seller Mustek rose 7.4% to R8.70 after releasing its interim results for the six months to end-December.
Mustek grew net profit 32% to R57.6m, while revenue was nearly flat at R2.7bn.
“The growth in fibre to the home is not only assisting our fibre sales, but also increasing the demand for new devices in order to fully benefit from the faster internet speeds,” the company said in its results statement.
“The smart education and learning market is expected to grow as more education institutions realise the importance of digitisation in the mobile and connected world. We are excited to be able to support schools and universities with digital education deployment and to assist them in taking advantage of this growth opportunity.”
Northam Platinum rose 3.6% to R54 after releasing its interim results showing a 49% jump in revenue to R5bn and a return to profit of R176m from a loss of R151m in the first half of its 2018 financial year.
“Northam’s growth strategy of developing low-cost, long-life operations remains firmly in place. Project execution is on track and we are confident that the group is in a position to deliver a strong financial performance even in subdued market conditions going forward,” the company said.
The rand strengthened on Friday morning to under R14/$ and R16/€, but failed to crack R18/£.
The South African currency was trading at R13.97/$, R15.85/€ and R18.22/£ at 9.40am.